WTA: Svitolina, Osaka, Stephens – Star casserole in Brisbane

Great line-up at the WTA Premier Event at the start of the 2019 tennis year in Brisbane: besides defending champion Elina Svitolina, several Grand Slam winners will be performing.

The starting field for the women’s season opener in Brisbane does credit to the tournament’s category: the event is classified as a “Premier Event”. And the cast is accordingly. With Elina Svitolina, not only the defending champion returns to Brisbane, but also the lady who won her last big victory on the WTA Tour 2018 – at the season finale in Singapore.

What Svitolina still lacks, however, will be brought along by three other women to the place where the German men made it clear at the beginning of 2018 that they would advance to the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup against Australia: highest merits at Grand Slam tournaments.

Naomi Osaka, for example, will be serving in Brisbane. The Japanese has taken the latest US Open by storm – just like Sloane Stephens the year before. The US player has made several exclamations in the season just ended, the last with a big comeback against Karolina Pliskova in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals.

Apropos: The Czech, former world number one, will also make a stop in Brisbane, as will her compatriot and double Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova. And also the last major winner from Australia will compete one last time: Samantha Stosur, US Open Champion Filly of 2011.