The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Field filling up with WTA Tour winners
Ten of the 20 committed to event have picked up victories this year
The WTA Tour is going through a transformative time, and the Connecticut Open’s 2017 field will reflect that change.
Of the 20 players currently committed to the event, which runs Aug. 18-26 at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale, 10 of them have won WTA events this year.
The latest such player to pledge is Kiki Mladenovic, who’s ranked No. 13 in the world and won her first WTA title in St. Petersburg (Russia) earlier this year. She was joined by No. 11 Dominika Cibulkova as new additions on Monday.
“There’s a complete transformation happening in women’s tennis, a changing of the guard,” tournament director Anne Worcester said. “This year alone, we’ve seen 26 different players have won titles at 33 events. There’s a greater number of women capable of winning titles than in recent memory. It shows great depth.”
The field will add two more “big names” in the next month, Worcester noted, to go with additional Top 20 wild cards.
Cibulkova and Mladenovic join a field that already includes defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska and two-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova, who recently returned to competition after being severely injured in a home invasion over the winter.
Also in the field this year will be a trio of up-and-coming Russians: Daria Kasatkina, 19, who won her first WTA title earlier this year at Charleston; Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who won titles in Monterrey and Rabat (Morocco) and was an Olympic gold medalist last summer; and 2016 quarterfinalist Elena Vesnina, who won the biggest title of her career at 2017 Indian Wells.
Vesnina and her partner, Ekaterina Makarova, teamed up to win the ladies’ doubles title at Wimbledon — their third Grand Slam title together.
Other entrants who have won titles this year are Samantha Stosur (Strasbourg), Kvitova (Birmingham), Lesia Tsurenko (Acapulco), Anett Kontaveit (‘sHertogenbosch), Lauren Davis (Auckland) and Kiki Bertens (Numberg).
Davis, who won in Auckland in a field that included both Serena and Venus Williams, and Sloane Stephens, a wild card who made her return to competition at Wimbledon after missing time with a foot injury, are among the standout Americans in the field.
Worcester also announced a wild card for 2014 Wimbledon runner-up Genie Bouchard.
Rounding out the 22 players in the main draw right now are Roland Garros semifinalist Timea Bacinszky, five-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Carla Suarez Navarro, Australian Open semifinalist Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 2016 Top 10 debutant Roberta Vinci and Chinese No. 1 and No. 2 Zhang Shuai and
Peng Shuai.
The field will add two more Top 20 players with wild cards. Six players will also advance into the 38-player field through a qualifying draw.
This year’s event marks the 20th anniversary of women’s tennis in New Haven. Legend Martina Navratilova will take part in the opening ceremony on Aug. 21, followed by a mixed doubles exhibition with fellow Grand Slam champion Mats Wilander.
There will also be PowerShares Series men’s matches on Aug. 24-25 featuring Hall of Famers John McEnroe and Michael Chang, along with Fairfield’s James Blake and defending champ Mark Philippoussis.
For more information about the 2017 Connecticut Open, or to volunteer for the event (volunteer drivers get to drive Porsches, Worcester noted) and to purchase tickets visit www. ctopen.org or call 203776-7331.