Seven top 10 players in action
Seven players from the top 10 in the world rankings will be battling it out for the title at the ecotrans Ladies Open at the Steffi Graf Stadium of the LTTC "Rot-Weiß" e. V. in Berlin.
Truly desirable goals. But the road there is tough! It's a feast for the fans, because it's one thrilling match after another. On Thursday, the top four of the seeding list will compete. Coco Gauff (WTA rank 2) and Aryna Sabalenka (WTA rank 3) will enter center court. Also in action: Elena Rybakina (WTA rank 4), the third seeded Wimbledon winner from 2022. Fourth seed Jessica Pegula(WTA rank 5) and Marketa Vondrousova (WTA rank 6), Wimbledon winner from 2023, will also present themselves to the Berlin crowd. China superstar Qinwen Zheng (WTA rank 8) will have to finish on Thursday, her match against Katerina Siniakova was abandoned on Wednesday evening at 3:5 in the first set because the grass had become too slippy. And Ons Jabeur(WTA ranked 10th), the 2022 Berlin winner and 2022 and 2023 Wimbledon finalist, is also in action.
In short: an incredible amount of class on Berlin grass!
Coco Gauff starts her assault on the Berlin title in the Steffi Graf Stadium against Ekaterina Alexandrova (WTA rank 20). "I always feel comfortable in Berlin," says Gauff, who won the US Open in 2023. Her game works on all surfaces. She is the clear favorite to reach the quarter-finals. Elena Rybakina opens the tennis day at the Steffi Graf Stadium against qualifier Veronika Kudermetova. After that the Zheng-Siniakova duel will be finalized.
Before the rain set in on Wednesday, Victoria Azarenkahad already wrapped up her place in the quarter-finals with a 6:3 and 6:3 win over the very promising and spirited qualifier Zeynep Sonmez. Following her success over Maria Sakkari, Azarenka now remains without a set loss in the tournament. Her quarter-final opponent will be either Veronika Kudermetova or Elena Rybakina.
For Tunisia's superstar Ons Jabeur, three stages were necessary to complete the victory over Xinyu Wang (China) due to the rain interruptions. 6:4 before the rain on Tuesday, then 3:2 in the second set before the rain on Wednesday, and finally 7:6 (7:4) in the tiebreak after the rain. Jabeur now faces Angelique Kerber's conqueror from Tuesday in the round of 16 on Thursday: Linda Noskova(Czech Republic).
Marketa Vondrousova will be up against Anna Kalinskaya. The duel between world number five Jessica Pegula and last year's finalist Donna Vekic is also a cracker.
Aryna Sabalenka's match on Thursday is against Daria Kasatkina. Sabalenka, winner of the Australian Open 2024, has not yet won a title on grass, "although I actually like playing on grass". She prepared for Berlin at Wimbledon. It doesn't get any better than this: in Berlin, the same grass is played with the same balls.
In the doubles, Jule Niemeierand Noma Noha Akuguemissed out on a place in the semi-finals. The German doubles team lost to Demi Schuurs/Luisa Stefani 2:6, 4:6.
The matches on Thursday start at 11 am.