Angelique Kerber starts her lawn season at the Mallorca Open starting on Monday. Rumours have it that the eleven-time French Open Champion Rafael Nadal will also visit the facility in Santa Ponsa in the southwest of the holiday island.
By Ulrike Weinrich from Santa Ponsa/Majorca
It is quite possible that Rafael Nadal will be sitting in his car in Manacor these days and first driving along the Autopista MA-15 and later the MA-1. After the eleventh prank, the Mallorcan is currently on his home island in his sand court kingdom of Paris to relax. Home sweet home – in Spanish.
“The odds are 50:50,” says Edwin Weindorfer. And the Austrian organiser of the 3rd Mallorca Open estimates the probability that “Rafa” will pass by the WTA tournament. Last year, the world number one was already a guest on the grounds of the former Santa Ponca Country Club – to train on the lush green. In a good mood and in a neon yellow tank shirt.
And for good reason. The lawn is said to be very similar to that in Wimbledon (from 2 July). The event, endowed with 250,000 dollars, aims to establish itself as a prestigious dress rehearsal for the classic on London’s Church Road. The Iberians have a pledge. The weather on the sunny island should also be better at the third edition than at the concurrently held competition tournament in Birmingham.
“Our advantage is weather safety. The players can train here every day,” Weindorfer told the Mallorca Zeitung and also told them that they had negotiated with superstar Serena Williams, the seven-time Wimbledon winner from the USA, for a start at the Mallorca Open: “But since the exertions were too much for her at the French Open after the baby break, Serena cancelled.
But Angelique Kerber will be at the grass court tournament in Spain for the first time and immediately as the face of the event. Already on “Super” Sunday the two-time Grand Slam winner, who owns an apartment on Mallorca and trained on Saturday from 10.00 a.m., will take centre stage.
Together with Tommy Haas she will meet Carla Suarez Navarro and Alex Corretja in a German-Iberian mixed “Länderkampf” one day before the main field start at 3 pm. From 5 p.m. onwards, King Football will temporarily take over the regiment on the tennis court. During a public viewing and barbecue, Kerber, Haas, tournament ambassador Barbara Rittner, other guests of honour and fans watch the German team’s first World Cup group match against Mexico.
Also some former and well-known players of Real Madrid have announced themselves. However, details have not yet been revealed. At least three German players will be in the main field of the field of 32 players: Besides Kerber also Carina Witthöft (Hamburg) and Tatjana Maria (Bad Saulgau).
Andrea Petkovic (Darmstadt) will start in the qualification thanks to a wildcard. The main field “free tickets” were given to the two former French Open winners Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) and Francesca Schiavone (Italy).
Other driving forces besides Kerber are world ranking seventh-placed Caroline Garcia (France) and two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka (Belarus). A total of 15,000 spectators are expected to come to Santa Ponsa during the tournament week.