Venus Williams, Petra Kvitova and other grand slam winners join Adelaide International competition
South Australia has attracted more tennis talent for the Adelaide International, bringing in former world number ones and grand slam winners to join Novak Djokovic and Ash Barty.
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Next month’s inaugural Adelaide International tennis tournament has hit new heights with the addition of three more women who have been the number one player in the world.
Venus Williams, Angelique Kerber, Garbine Muguruza will join the current world’s top player Ash Barty and fellow grand slam winner Simona Halep at Memorial Drive from January 12 in what is shaping up as a quite extraordinary line-up.
FULL ENTRY LIST BELOW
Tennis in South Australia in January will never have seen anything quite like it, with seven time, and defending, Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, heading the men’s list.
“The summer of tennis has changed. If you want to see good tennis, SA is the place to be,” tournament director Alistair MacDonald said.
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“A lot of players finish early (elsewhere) and will be looking for matches to play. The right number of matches is very important for the top players. Adelaide can offer that and we finish on the Saturday, not the Sunday, before the Australian Open.”
Entries have now closed for the 30 player women’s field and 28 player men’s tournament which runs the week before the Open and is being pushed by organisers as the perfect prep for the Melbourne hard courts.
“Adelaide is ideal. We have similar conditions (court surface and weather). A lot of players travel with a big entourage or family and we are right on the fringe of the city and the hotel is right across the bridge from Memorial Drive. It will be a relaxed but competitive week looking ahead to the grand slam.”
Meanwhile, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing, Corey Wingard denied the state government had contributed directly to the players’ appearance fees.
“Our money has gone towards the investment in the ($10 million) roof here and also towards the prize money. The tournament directors run the other side of it,” he said.
Dual Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, American Sloane Stephens who won the 2017 US Open singles crown and the Netherlands’ number nine ranked Kiki Bertens are the other standouts in a quite stunning women’s’ draw.
Williams though will catch the eye. Pots may be mostly in the past for 39-year-old elder sister who turned professional at just 14, but she remains a formidable presence. The last of her seven grand slam singles wins came at Wimbledon in 20008 and while she is unlikely to push Barty or Halep et al, Williams will have every foe on edge.
Although not the same scale as her younger sibling Serena, she has gravitated from sporting stardom to simple stardom and her pending appearance represents a serious coup for the Adelaide organisers.
“It is always exciting to play at a new tournament in front of new fans,” Williams said.
“I’ve had so many memorable times in Australia over the years and I am looking forward to discovering Adelaide and all it has to offer.”
While her major singles trophies have come at Wimbledon (five times) and in New York (twice), the tournament wildcard is not without success in Australia having won the Australian Open doubles four times.
Now ranked 53 in the world – 20 years after she won her first grand slam (US Open) – she stands apart still from most players, last month even featuring in the world’s most successful vegan athletes by the Guinness book of world records.
The popular German Kerber is an equal coup and will turn 32-years-old on the tournament’s finals day on January 18. Although not always in the limelight, she has a deeply impressive CV, winning her first grand slam in Australia in 2016 and backing it up with the US Open and Wimbledon singles.
Such is the depth of quality on show that Muguruza, who won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon a year later will not be a direct entrant and will attempt to fight her way through qualifying to the main draw which has a cut off point of number 30 in the world. Muguruza currently sits at number 35 on the WTA rankings.
Djokovic who will compete for Serbia in the inaugural ATP Cup in Australia in early January can expect a rigorous challenge in Adelaide from the most recent bout of players desperate to upturn the holy trinity of himself, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer at the helm of the men’s game.
Australian top dog Alex de Minaur, who is yet to face Djokovic on court, and big hitting Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime will offer the most obvious threat from a powerful field that cuts off automatic entry at number 50.
The tournament will be played on the centre court at Memorial Drive and across the four adjacent Next Generation courts.
Qualifying will take place on Saturday January 11 and Sunday January 12.
Full entry list
Women (world ranking and nationality)
1 Ashleigh Barty AUS
4 Simona Halep ROU
7 Petra Kvitova CZE
9 Kiki Bertens NED
12 Johanna Konta GBR
14 Sofia Kenin USA
15 Petra Martic CRO
16 Marketa Vondrousova CZE
18 Alison Riske USA
19 Donna Vekic CRO
20 Angelique Kerber GER
22 Dayana Yastremska UKR
23 Maria Sakkari GRE
25 Sloane Stephens USA
26 Anett Kontaveit EST
27 Anastasija Sevastova LAT
28 Julia Goerges GER
29 Danielle Collins USA
30 Qiang Wang CHN
[Wildcard)] 53 Venus Williams USA
Men
2 Novak Djokovic SRB
21 Felix Auger-Aliassime CAN
27 Pablo Carreno-Busta ESP
51 Jeremy Chardy FRA
45 Pablo Cuevas URU
18 Alex de Minaur AUS
38 Laslo Djere SRB
42 Daniel Evans GBR
32 Taylor Fritz USA
33 Cristian Garin CHI
50 Juan Ignacio Londero ARG
36 Reilly Opelka USA
22 Lucas Pouille FRA
44 Sam Querrey USA
41 Albert Ramos-Vinolas ESP
23 Andrey Rublev RUS
55 Gilles Simon FRA
35 Jan-Lennard Struff GER
49 Fernando Verdasco ESP