Two tournaments are running this week in tennis on the WTA Tour, one in Gstaad, Switzerland, and the other in Bucharest, Romania. Unfortunately for tennis fans looking for a big name, neither tournament has a top-five player in the field. Caroline Garcia of France is the top seed in the Gstaad draw while Anastasija Sevastova is the top seed in the Bucharest event.
Garcia, a title threat on clay
Garcia promises to do well in Gstaad, which is a clay-court event. The French player did a lot of damage at Roland Garros during the 2017 French Open earlier this season.
It seems there is no dangerous player in the top half of the draw beside her, although perhaps third-seeded Anett Kontaveit can be looked out as a threat for the final as well. Furthermore, the tournament is interesting in the sense that Patty Schnyder is in the draw. The Swiss player has played in the outer events of late and she is one to watch in a home-country event. On the bottom half of the draw for Gstaad, Kiki Bertens lurks as the most dangerous player. The former French Open semifinalist, who is a Dutch national, is the two seed and has to like her draw to the final.
Is Begu a title threat in Romania?
In Bucharest, Sevastova shares a path to the final with both Julia Goerges and Sorana Cirstea.
On the bottom half of the draw, Carla Suarez-Navarro is seeded 2nd. The Spaniard has not had a memorable season by her standards but could be viewed as the most talented player in the Bucharest draw this week. That puts the tournament on her racket if she is able to find her best tennis. At present, she is well out of the top 20 on the WTA Tour and has struggled to stay relevant in 2017.
She shares a draw to the final with Irina-Camelia Begu, a decent clay courter. Begu is a Romanian national so she will be looking to use the support of the partisan crowds to put together a strong run at the low-tiered event.
With the two active tournaments not really featuring a blockbuster player, the major news of the day is the changing of the guard on top of the women's rankings.
Angelique Kerber is no longer no. 1 as the German fell in the fourth round of Wimbledon last week. The new top-ranked player is big-server Karolina Pliskova. She is idle this week but looks to be a dangerous player as the summer progresses. While the tournaments currently running are both clay-court events, looking ahead there are numerous hard-court events coming up that will build up to the 2017 US Open.
