TUNISIAN Ons Jabeur has had a remarkable 2021 WTA Tour season, but she is not looking to slow down any time soon with yet another tournament after playing at Indian Wells – and then having to retire at the Kremlin Cup – fronting up in the Courmayeur Ladies Open in Italy. It is one of two WTA 250 events, with the other at Cluj-Napoca, Romania with the most recent US Open winner looking to find form against a home grown talent. We take a look at both draws and what to expect.

Courmayer Ladies Open WTA 250

Jabeur enters as the top seed and is raging favourite at the event, particularly in her half of the draw. If she is fit and right to go – after that retirement in Germany – then there is no reason she should not add another title to her name in 2021. Jabeur faces Vitalia Diatchenko in the first round, with a cruisy run to the quarter finals where the only opponent likely to give her too much of a worry is Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini. In a weaker quarter of the draw, it is hard not to see Jabeur emerging victorious, with the next quarter lead by fourth seed Croatian Petra Martic.

As we have come to expect with Martic, you never know quite which player will show up, because at her best she is a Top 20 player, but can easily play like one outside the Top 50. A potential second round clash with either Donna Vekic or Dayana Yastremska – which is the standout Round of 32 match – could be fascinating, whilst Ann Li is another unseeded player who could cause a few upsets on the road to the final. The third quarter of the draw is similarly predictable, with three qualifiers in the eight player quarter, and third seed Liudmila Samsonova in line to face sixth seed Alison Riske in the quarter finals.

The final quarter of the draw features one of hte most exciting up-and-coming stars with Danish teenager Clara Tauson entering as fifth seed, taking on Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele in the first round. Tauson has a soft draw to the quarter finals where she takes on in-form Italian Camila Giorgi with the winner every chance to face off against Jabeur in the final. With Samsonova predicted to be the other semi-finalist in that half of the draw, it will provide a few good contests deep in the tournament.

Jabeur and Tauson would be the pick for the final, though Giorgi is still a good chance to upset Tauson. Expect Yastremska and Li to potentially cause some issues, with Samsonova the underrated seed in the draw.

2021 Transylvania Open WTA 250

The stronger of the two draws, the Romanian tournament has no shortage of home grown talent in the draw, with seven players automatically making the final 32. Top seed Simona Halep and third seed Emma Raducanu are potential semi-finals opponents, with Anett Kontaveit (second seed) and Jil Teichmann (fourth) in the bottom half of the draw. The quality drops off a little after that, but there are still some good unseeded talents taking part in the 250 event, which will keep plenty of interest in the tournament.

Top seed Halep has not had the best on years, but remains the favourite to win at home, and has to play compatriot Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the first round. Following that, she will lineup against either German Andrea Petkovic or rising Russian Varvara Gracheva, with Australian fifth seed Ajla Tomljanovic in Halep’s quarter of the draw. Slovenian young gun Kaja Juvan is also there in what is a competitive enough quarter. It is a fair bit easier for Raducanu, who returns after that first-up loss at Indian Wells by facing Slovenian Polona Hercog. She will likely take on Romanian Ana Bogdan in the Round of 16, with Marta Kostyuk the Ukrainian sixth seed in her quarter of the draw. All up, a Halep and Raducanu semi-final would be huge for the spectators.

Looking at the bottom half of the draw, Kontaveit is destined to reach a semi-final looking at the draw with a qualifier first up, one of three in her quarter. She received the eighth seed Anhelina Kalinina as her potential quarter finals opponent, with experienced Anna-Lena Friedsam and Alison Van Uytvanck in there too. If she continues her form of 2021, Kontaveit should roll through to the semi-finals, where she will likely play either Teichmann or home nation hero and seventh seed Irina-Camelia Begu. She takes on compatriot Irina Bara in the first round, with one of Colombian young gun Maria Camila Osorio Serrano and Swede Rebecca Peterson set to be her second round opponent.

This tournament has a bit more competitiveness to it, but expect Halep to be too strong at home, facing Kontaveit in the final after they took care of the two rising talents. The question will be whether Raducanu can bounce back from that shock loss, but if all players perform at their best in this tournament, expect the top four to be where it is at.

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Picture credit: Greg Wood/AFP via Getty Images

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