Julia Görges and Kiki Bertens were both eliminated in the round of 16 at the WTA Premier Mandatory tournament in Beijing. The two players will serve in Linz next week.
It is quite possible that Julia Görges and Kiki Bertens met at the airport in Beijing: Both players had to say goodbye to the last WTA Premier Madrid event of the year on Thursday and suffered a setback in the fight for one of the starting places at the WTA final in Singapore.
Bertens is currently in ninth place in the “Porsche Race to Singapore”, which could be enough if Simona Halep is unable to start at the season finale due to her slipped disc. Görges, on the other hand, is ranked 15th, which would mean qualifying for the WTA EliteTrophy in Zhuhai. There, the German Fed Cup player would also take on the role of defending champion.
The next tasks are for Görges as well as for Bertens in Linz. At the WTA tournament there, the two of them are currently in the top two positions, followed by Barbora Strycova, who was successful in the Upper Austrian provincial capital a year ago.
Strycova’s compatriot Katerina Siniakova also mentioned Linz, but her success against Bertens already caused a stir in Beijing. The appearance of Anett Kontaveit will also be watched with interest, the Estonian had recently advanced to the final in Wuhan.
And then there’s Belinda Bencic. For the Swiss, things are not quite going well all year round, but Bencic has good memories of Linz. Her comeback there was only stopped in 2017 in the semi-finals.