Ostrava (Czech Republic) Sep 8, : World No 1 and two-time Roland Garros titlist Iga Swiatek is the leader of the list of players that includes six Grand Slam champions for the AGEL Open, a WTA 500 tournament in Ostrava which will begin on the 3rd of October.Swiatek will be joined by newly-crowned Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, as well as two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka and 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu and former Roland Garros winners Jelena Ostapenko and Barbora Krejcikova.
Krejcikova and two-time major finalist Karolina Pliskova will be leading the home team at the largest Czech tournament of the season.
There are four more Top 10 players: defending champion Anett Kontaveit and the winner of last year’s final Maria Sakkari, Roland Garros semifinalist Daria Kasatkina, and Paula Badosa, will be as well in the race.
In 2021, Kontaveit won her first WTA 500 title in Ostrava and marked the beginning of an active 20-match winning streak in indoor hard courts which saw the Estonian climb into her current World No.2 ranking.In the autumn of 2018, Kontaveit racked up wins in Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca to make her entry into the WTA Finals Guadalajara, where she finished second to Garbine Muguruza.
It is noteworthy that the AGEL Open has been a fixture on the Hologic WTA Tour calendar since 2020 which was the year that Aryna Sabalenka beat Azarenka to win the title for the first time.
