MOST of the tournament contenders at Monterrey, Mexico will hope to find form that has been lost over the past couple of months, with a former Grand Slam winner returning to the tour and others hoping to bounce back from a string of disappointing first round defeats in previous starts.

FAVOURITE:

Elina Svitolina (UKR)

The number one seed and tournament favourite has only won two matches in her seven past starts which gives an indication of how out-of-form and open this tournament is at Monterrey. The Ukrainian still remains inside the top 10, but since her back-to-back wins over Bibiane Schoofs (195th in the world) and Storm Sanders (319th) at Thailand, Svitolina has faltered in her Round of 32 matches at Dubai (Jennifer Brady) and Doha (Amanda Anisimova). She comes into the tournament surely confident of going deep given the field is equally out of sorts, and she will not want to slip outside the top 10 in the coming weeks. She did not play here so is free of defending points.

CONTENDERS:

Johanna Konta (GBR)

Another contender who did not play here last year, the world number 16 has been slipping down the order to 16th after a year-end ranking of 12th last season. Having reached a high of fourth back in 2017, Konta will hope to reverse the trend here, but her form is sub-par to say the least. She did battle with injury, resting herself from the Fed Cup early last month, but in her only match since, her loss to 159th ranked Oceane Dodin. First round losses to Ons Jabeur (Australian Open) and Barbora Strycova (Brisbane International) pre-dated that, but it is hoped with an extra week’s rest,

Sloane Stephens (USA)

As bad as Konta’s form has been, Stephens has found the going even tougher, bowing out to Liudmila Samsonova (129th in the world), Arina Rodionova (201st) and Renata Zarazua (270th) around a defeat at the hands of Zhang Shuai at Melbourne Park. There is little doubt Stephens has the talent to match and beat the very best – she did knock off Serena Williams at the US Open – but her recent form has seen her slip all the way out to 37th in the world, having missed out on winning a title in 2019 after being a Roland Garros finalist and winner at Miami in 2018. It seems that Stephens just needs to find her confidence again and this could be the perfect place to start against a field of players with similar woes in terms of form.

Victoria Azarenka (BLR)

The Grand Slam winner returns to Monterrey after having to retire in last year’s final, going down to Spaniard, Garbine Muguruza 6-1 3-1. She knocked off number one seed, Angelique Kerber in the semis and third seed, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarter finals, so deserved her place in the final match of the tournament. Having not won a singles title since 2016, Azarenka is still on the comeback trail but the former world number one and two-time Australian Open winners is the best in the field if on-song. It is whether she can reach those heights, and given she has not played since the US Open last year, is still recovering from injury. She did defeat Belinda Bencic two starts back at Cincinnati – albeit due to a retirement – but how much that counts for now is yet to be seen.

ROUGHIE:

Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP)

The world 79 is another who is out of sorts, but at her best can really cause some headaches. She stunned Naomi Osaka at the Fed Cup to win 6-0 6-3 against the Grand Slam winner and top 10 player. Either side of that though, Sorribes Tormo lost to Ivana Popovic (459th in the world) and Sara Errani (185th) which shows the consistency is still not there. She is still 23-years-old and building, but just has to be more consistent on the WTA Tour to be a threat deep in tournaments.

DARK HORSE:

Leylah Fernandez (CAN)

The most in-form player of anyone, the Canadian avoided qualifying thanks to her final run at Acapulco and now enters the draw under a special exemption. Given the tennis she was able to play there – defeating three players in the top 100 – to reach the final before losing in three sets to world number 69, Heather Watson, she is every chance to go deep again here with a similar quality field. At 17-years-old, she is likely to have a massive future and showed it with a straight sets upset of Bencic at the Fed Cup. If she can keep it rolling, her 126th rank – which was 209th at the start of the year – will keep rising. Destined to be top 100 very soon, if not during this tournament.