Around the Tours: Osaka wins tough upon return
JAPANESE star Naomi Osaka has made a winning return to the WTA Tour in Melbourne, getting up in a tight three-set win over Frenchwoman Alize Cornet. It was the perfect start for Osaka, perhaps not the most dominant of performances, but she blew out the cobwebs and came away with the win. Cornet is a […]
2021 WTA Tour preview: Open fields in Chicago, Nur-Saltan
THE CHICAGO Fall Tennis Classic has been dealt a blow this year, with a number of top talents unable to play in what is an open field of entrants. Whilst the likes of Ash Barty, Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Naomi Osaka and – after a late withdrawal – Maria Sakkari will not take part, there […]
Wimbledon qualifiers: Who made the cut?
THE Championships at Wimbledon are set to begin tomorrow, with a huge two weeks of grass court action returning after being cancelled in 2020. We delve into the 32 men’s and women’s competitors who enter the main draw of their respective events following three rounds of qualifiers. MEN’S The 16 men’s competitors range from highly […]
WTA Tour wrap: Li and Ostapenko the big winners on opening days at Monterrey and St. Petersburg
PROCEEDINGS have begun at the WTA 250 tournament in Monterrey, Mexico and WTA 500 tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia, with some quality talents making their mark already. At Monterrey, one seed fell and one seed prevailed in tight encounters to open the competition, as eighth seed Ann Li ran out victorious in a 6-3 7-5 matchup with Dutch […]
2021 Adelaide International: Day 1 of qualifiers sees Americans and Aussies dominate
THE Adelaide International qualifying rounds have begun, with a flurry of American and Australian competitors taking the court in South Australia and at least one player from each of the two nations playing in each match. They combined for eight of the 12 winners on the day, including top seed youngster Coco Gauff and unseeded […]
Australian Open Women’s Round of 128 wrap: Barty dominates as Sherif first Egyptian woman to make it to grand slam second round
A flurry of exciting players joined the Australian Open fray on Day 2 of proceedings at Melbourne Park, with world number one Ash Barty making her Open return in smashing fashion, while the likes of Sofia Kenin, Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova all came out flying as the top seeds of the day. In a highly competitive day of […]
WTA 500 wraps: Seeds stumble in Yarra Valley Classic as Australians fall across the board
ON the opening day of the WTA Tour’s Summer Series in Australia, all bar one of the host nation’s players fell, while a couple of French seeds bowed out in the first round at the Yarra Valley Classic. Kicking off the 2021 Summer Series in the Yarra Valley Classic, a couple of Americans in Shelby […]
Top Seed Open draws Serena Williams to the fray
A BRAND new tournament starts up this week in Lexington, Kentucky, with the Top Seed Open set to host a wealth of top ranked players from the North America region in the lead up to the US Open, with hard court experience essential on the return of the tour. Ninth ranked Serena Williams headlines the […]
Fed Cup fantasy tennis: 2020 Tournament preview
LIKE every sport on the planet right now, tennis is in hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means no live sport for the time being, and everyone is scrambling for whatever sport they can find be it the Belarusian Premier League, Tajikistan Basketball League or Ukrainian table tennis. Next week would have seen the […]
ATP/WTA Tour nation analysis: Papua New Guinea
WITH all the ATP Tour and WTA Tour tournaments on hiatus for the time being, Draft Central will take a look at various nations across the globe and analyse how the top players from that nation are performing. Our next nation is Papua New Guinea. Top ATP player: Nil. — Top WTA player: Abigail Tere-Apisah […]
