The women's singles draws at the 2017 Citi Open and the 2017 Bank of the West Classic have winnowed down to quarter-finalists. One player that will be missing, that was expected to be in the quarters in Washington, is Kristina Mladenovic. The French player lost on Thursday to upstart teenager Bianca Andreescu of Canada. She, Simona Halep, and six others are scheduled for action on Friday as the players look to book their spots in the semifinals this weekend in Washington. Meanwhile, in Stanford, all of the top seeds remain alive in the draw.
Friday's schedule for WTA Washington
All of the women's quarterfinals are scheduled for Grandstand 1 at the Citi Open's tennis grounds. That court will start at 2 pm ET with Halep facing Ekaterina Makarova. The schedule is below with seeding, if applicable, in parentheses.
- 2 pm ET: Romania's Simona Halep (1) vs. Russia's Ekaterina Makarova (7)
- To follow, but not before 3:30 pm: Romania's Monica Niculescu (6) vs. Germany's Julia Goerges (4)
- To follow: Germany's Sabine Lisicki vs. France's Oceane Dodin (5)
- To follow: Germany's Andrea Petkovic vs. Canada's Bianca Andreescu
Order of play for WTA Stanford
Stanford is also down to quarterfinals. The tournament could be noted for the fact that all top-eight seeds in the women's draw have advanced to the quarters.
Usually there is one or two upsets or dangerous non-seeds, however, everything has gone according to form so far this week. Garbine Muguruza and Petra Kvitova are the top seeds in the tournament. All of the matches below will be played on Stadium Court with a start time of noon (PT).
- Noon: Spain's Garbiñe Muguruza (1) vs. Croatia's Ana Konjuh (5)
- To follow, but not before 1:00 pm: USA's Coco Vandeweghe (6) vs. Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (4)
- To follow, but not before 4:00 pm: USA's Madison Keys (3) vs. Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko (7)
- To follow, but not before 7:00 pm: USA's Catherine Bellis (8) vs. Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova (2)
There are plenty of plots in both Washington and Stanford.
Halep, of course, is in the running for the World No. 1 ranking in the weeks ahead. In a close race, any points that she can get might make a difference for her. Andreescu is a player with loads of momentum right now as she is surging up the rankings and trying to make herself relevant on the women's tour.
In Stanford, Garbine Muguruza is trying to follow up her Wimbledon success with continued success at the lower-tiered events.
Fans will remember that after Muguruza won the French Open in 2016 she slumped for ages. It will be interesting to see if she makes the final in Stanford or if her motivation again regresses after her Grand Slam win.
Madison Keys is certainly an interesting player to keep an eye on. She has World No. 1 potential but has not done anything of note since returning from a late-2016 injury that required surgery. Meanwhile, Kvitova is interesting to watch as she looks to get back to her dominant self again after the setbacks she's experienced in the last year. Her opponent, Catherine Bellis, is among the plethora of teenagers currently invading the top 200 on the women's tour.
