Big names may get a game at Domain

THE Hobart International tennis tournament, which has a history of producing stars of the future, could lure some big names from the past this summer. A cavalcade of WTA stars are hovering within the ranking range of the event with just three weeks to go before acceptances close. Names such as Garbine Muguruza, Venus Williams, Jelena Ostapenko, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka could use the Hobart International as a warm-up event for the Australian Open in January.

A CAVALCADE of WTA stars are hovering within the ranking range of the Hobart International three weeks out from first acceptances closing.

The tournament, which sits a tier below Australian Open lead-up events in Brisbane and Adelaide is renowned for unearthing the next crop of emerging talent. But a smattering of former world No.1 and grand slam champions are genuine chances of gracing the Domain Tennis Centre in 2020 because of their current rankings.

Hobart traditionally misses out on top 20-calibre players, but the likes of Garbine Muguruza, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Ostapenko, Victoria Azarenka, Venus Williams, Sam Stosur and Maria Sharapova are sitting at rankings which could see them miss the bigger tournaments unless handed wildcards. Muguruza, who came through qualifying in Hobart in 2014 to win her maiden WTA title and is now a dual major champion (French Open 2016, Wimbledon 2017), is the highest-ranked at 36.

In the twilight of her career Stosur has slid to 96, while five-time grand slam champion Sharapova is at 134, though the Russian rarely plays the week leading into a major. “I don’t know what all their plans are but it definitely bodes well for who we could potentially get,” Hobart International tournament director Darren Sturgess said. “Some of those players in there, they’re highprofile names and good reputations too.”

The likelihood of several members of the French Fed Cup-winning squad playing in Hobart is also high, with Kristina Mladenovic — who beat world No.1 Ash Barty to lead the country to victory — the No.40-ranked player in the world ahead of Caroline Garcia (45) and Alize Cornet (60).

Sturgess is also buoyed by the early ticket sales for the tournament which runs from January 11-18.

“We’ve had a good start with those this year again year on year, so we’re really happy with that. We’ve got a good indication that we’ll build upon our crowd.”