Canada 2010 Women’s 1st Round

photo credit:paddynapper

The 2010 Canadian Open women’s main draw singles matches will begin on Monday 16 August at 11am local time in Montreal. There are 56 main draw spots divided up between 8 Qualifiers (Q), 4 Wild Cards (WC), 2 Lucky Losers (LL) and 42 Direct Acceptances. The 2010 Rogers Cup is the 4th of the 5 WTA Premier FIVE tournaments each year and the 10th major tournament in women’s tennis this year.

Only the Top 8 seeded players have a BYE in the 1st round, whilst seeds 9 to 16 must play in the 1st round. The Top 8 seeds await the 24 winners of the 1st round matches. In the draw below you will see there is a No.17 seed this is because Venus Williams withdrew after the draw had been made with a right knee injury and the next highest ranked player became a seed.

The 2010 Canada women’s singles match-ups for the seeded players, if they all win through to the round of 16 is:

(1) Jelena Jankovic versus (17) Marion Bartoli
(10) Victoria Azarenka v. (11) Li Na
(5) Kim Clijsters v. (14) Shahar Peer
(13) Yanina Wickmayer v. (8) Vera Zvonareva

Which are the match ups for the top half of the draw. In the bottom half of the draw, the players who are seeded to meet are:

(7) Agnieszka Radwanska v. (11) Svetlana Kuznetsova
(16) Aravane Rezai v. (4) Elena Dementieva
(6) Francesca Schiavone v. (12) Maria Sharapova
(15) Flavia Pennetta v. (2) Caroline Wozniacki

The player’s name that is bolded in the 1st round singles draw below is OCA’s prediction of who will win each match.

The 2010 Rogers Cup in Canada women’s singles draw for the 1st round is:

(1) Jankovic v. BYE
Sara Errani v. (Q) Iveta Benesova
(LL) Kimiko Date Krumm v. (Q) Monica Niculescu
(WC) Valerie Tetreault v. (17) Bartoli
(10) Azarenka v. Katernya Bondarenko
Maria Kirilenko v. Dominika Cibulkova
(Q) Jarmila Groth v. Alona Bondarenko
BYE v. (9) Li
(5) Clijsters v. BYE
Melanie Oudin v. (Q) Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Alexandra Dulgheru v. Sybille Bammer
Kaia Kanepi v. (14) Peer
(13) Wickmayer v. Olga Govortsova
Agnes Szavay v. Gisela Dulko
Angelique Kerber v. Yaroslava Shvedova
BYE v. (8) Zvonareva
(7) Radwanska v. BYE
(Q) Vania King v. Anabel Medina Garrigues
Timea Bacsinszky v. (WC) Aleksandra Wozniak
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v. (11) Kuznetsova
(16) Rezai v. Petra Kvitova
Zheng Jie v. Katarina Srebotnik
(WC) Stephanie Dubois v. Klara Zakopalova
BYE v. (4) Dementieva
(6) Schiavone v. BYE
(Q) Ekaterina Makarova v. (Q) Lucie Hradecka
Andrea Petkovic v. Dinara Safina
Lucie Safarova v. (12) Maria Sharapova
(15) Pennetta v. Daniela Hantuchova
Alisa Kleybanova v. (Q) Heidi El Tabakh
(WC) Virginie Razzano v. (LL) Patty Schnyder
BYE v. (2) Wozniacki

In a strong show of support by Tennis Canada 3 of the 4 wild cards into the main draw of the women’s singles event went to Canadians including, World No.170 Valerie Tetreault, No.53 Aleksandra Wozniak and No.133 Stephanie Dubois. The final wild card went to Virginie Razzano of France and the last direct acceptance into the main draw is Agnes Szavay of Hungary at World No.49.

Pictured above is 21 year old Alisa Kleybanova in position to swing her racquet forward to meet the incoming ball for this forehand drive. The 1.81m Kleybanova from Russia made the semi finals last year in Canada before losing 6-4 in the 3rd set against Sharapova. Kleybanova’s 2009 semi final is her best result in a major tournament on the WTA Tour.

Kleybanova’s next best major WTA result was making the quarter finals of the 2010 Indian Wells Open and she is not far off her career high singles ranking of No.22. The former ITF Junior World No.3 made the singles quarter finals twice at Junior Wimbledon 2004-2005 and the semi finals of the girl’s singles at the 2005 Roland Garros Junior Championships.

Stay tuned to this tennis website for coverage of every major women’s and men’s tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and ATP Tours. Click this link for further details about Canada including the schedule of play -> Canada 2010: August 7-22.