Andrea Petkovic, Julia Goerges and Sabine Lisicki,Germany?s top three female professional tennis stars, will play in the 2011 Mercury Insurance Open, July 30?to August 7 at the La Costa Resort and Spa, tournament officials announced on Friday.
?
?All three of these dynamic rapidly-rising players have a very entertaining style. They are starting to make an impact in women?s professional tennis and are on the verge of achieving great things in the sport,? said Mercury Insurance Open Tournament Director Raquel Giscafre.
?
Petkovic, ranked 11th?in the world, captured her second career WTA singles title inBrisbane,Australia in January. She also reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and French Open earlier this year.??Petkovic will be making her first appearance inCarlsbad.
?
Goerges is currently ranked a career-high 16th?in the world. She won her second career WTA title in Stuttgart, Germany in April, defeating No. 1 in the world Caroline Wozniacki, 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the final. Goerges will be making her first appearance inCarlsbad.
?
Lisicki, ranked 26th?in the world in the latest WTA rankings, achieved her best singles result in a Grand Slam when she reached the semifinals atWimbledon this year. Just prior to Wimbledon, Lisicki won her second career WTA singles title atBirmingham,England on grass. She will also be making her firstCarlsbad appearance.
?
Tournament officials also announced that Kim Clijsters ofBelgium, the?two-time defending US Open champion and reigning Australian Open titlist, along with 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of theCzechRepublic, have withdrawn from the Mercury Insurance Open.
?
Clijsters is still recovering from the same right ankle injury that forced her to miss the Wimbledon Championships earlier this summer.
?
The seventh-ranked Kvitova, who was scheduled to make her first career appearance at the La Costa Resort and Spa, is suffering from a pulled abdominal muscle.
?
?I am sorry I am unable to play in the Mercury Insurance Open this year but I?m still recovering from an injury that happened atWimbledon,? Kvitova said. ?Best wishes for a great tournament and I hope to be inCarlsbadnext year.?
?
Giscafre says the tournament still has a very strong field.???We continue to have an excellent draw that includes world No. 3 Vera Zvonareva, defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and last year?s finalist Agnieszka Radwanska,? Giscafre said.
?
Other WTA players entered in the 2011 Mercury Insurance Open include former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, Russia?s Maria Kirilenko, Flavia Pennetta of Italy, Daniela Hantuchova and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia and Americans Coco Vandeweghe, Christina McHale and Melanie Oudin.
?
The Mercury Insurance Open, a?Premier 700 Women?s Tennis Association (WTA)?event offering $721,000 in prize money, will feature a 56-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw in 2011. The women?s professional tennis event returned to the La Costa Resort and Spa inCarlsbadin 2010 after a two-year hiatus.??Russia?s Svetlana Kuznetsova won the singles title last summer when she defeated Agnieszka Radwanska ofPolandin the final.?The tournament will be televised on the Tennis Channel and ESPN 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.