Carina Witthöft is the fifth German tennis player in the main field at the top-class WTA tournament in Stuttgart. The 56th in the world rankings made it into round one as lucky loser on Monday despite her 7-5, 1-6, 3-6 defeat against 18-year-old Czech Marketa Vondrousova and will now face qualifier Sarina Dijas from Kazakhstan.
Witthöft’s replacement was made possible by the short-term cancellation of Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova, originally the opening opponent of Germany’s number one Julia Görges. Görges now has to deal with Vondrousova instead on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Angelique Kerber will face two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic), against whom she lost 2-6, 2-6 in the Fed Cup semi-final on Sunday.
Last year’s winner Laura Siegemund (Metzingen), equipped with a wildcard after a long break from injury, contests her first match against Barbora Strycova (Czech Republic), Antonia Lottner, also thanks to a wildcard at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, starts against 15-year-old Ukrainian top talent Marta Kostjuk.
The winner of the 41st edition of the event, which the players have voted the best tournament nine times in the past ten years, will receive prize money of 140,193 dollars and a bright red sports car. Favourites include world number one Simon Halep (Romania), Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza (Spain) and superstar Maria Sharapova (Russia).