A spirited and eventful start to the 2021 tennis season

 

With the WTA having announced the schedule for the first seven weeks of the 2021 Tour calendar, the season is ready to kick off with all safety measures and precautions in place. The first WTA tournament of the season - the Abu Dhabi WTA Women’s Tennis Open - is all set to run from January 5-13 at Zayed Sports City International Tennis Centre. The WTA 500 event will feature four of the world’s top 10 players - Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, World No.5 Elina Svitolina, former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova, and World no.10 Aryna Sabalenka.

 

Meanwhile, a promising array of players will be traveling to Dubai for the 2021 Australian Open women’s qualifying from January 10-13. The qualifying event will see 128 women compete for 16 spots in the main draw of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Players and their support teams will travel to Australia after the end of these two events, and following the compulsory 2-week quarantine period, two WTA 500 tournaments will be held simultaneously in Melbourne Park from January 31 - February 7. 

 

The 2021 Australian Open will then be held from February 8-21. While WTA World no.1 Ashleigh Barty will lead the singles line-up for the slam, Hsieh Su-Wei and Barbora Strycova will head the women's doubles entry list. Other strong aspirants of the singles title include Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka and defending champion Sofia Kenin along with other top 10 players Elina Svitolina, Karolina Pliskova, Bianca Andreescu, Petra Kvitova, Kiki Bertens and Aryna Sabalenka. Serena Williams will be going in pursuit of a record-tying 24th singles slam title and an 8th AO title. We will also see the return of two-time champion Victoria Azarenka and the newest grand slam champion, 19-year old Iga Swiatek.

 

On the whole, we will be witnessing an action-packed and exciting start to the 2021 women’s tennis season!

 

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