Admittedly, the starting field at the WTA Tour 500 tournament in St. Petersburg in the 2021 edition does not quite radiate the glamor of recent years, when players like Kiki Bertens (twice) and Petra Kvitova won the title. Not a single top 30 player named for the event in Russia, probably also due to the travel strains during the corona pandemic.

The local heroes are fine with this: seven Russian women made it to the quarter-finals, including the top seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova and Veronika Kudermetova. The latter will meet the revitalized Daria Kasatkina today. Also among the last eight players is veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova, who has to deal with the only non-Russian woman: Jaqueline Cristian from Romania, who defeated Jelena Ostapenko in the round of 16.

Incidentally, the prize money in St. Petersburg is impressive (the winner will be rewarded 68,570 US dollars), as are the points for the WTA world rankings. Although questions arise here again: Although the tournament is in the 500 category, the winner still only receives 470 points.

Here the single tableau in St. Petersburg