With just 7 days to start of the Roland Garros, some of the players who are already assured with their main draw entrance to the Grand Slam in Paris, decided to compete in one of the two WTA 250 events, which are played in Strasbourg and Rabat.
Magda Linette is the highest ranked player to compete this week, as the Pole headlines the field in Strasbourg, being the top seed of the main draw. Linette will play against Cristina Bucsa in the opening round. The top half of the draw contains also the seeds, who will try to get back the groove after playing a miserable season so far - 3rd seed Shuai Zhang, who starts against Anna Lena Friedsam, and 8th seed Jil Teichmann, who faces Maryna Zanevska in the opening round. The bottom half contains the players, who have made a deep run in the WTA 125 challenger in Paris this week. Diane Parry, who competes there in the final today, will be the opponent of the 4th seed Bernarda Pera. Katie Volynets, who reached out the semifinals in Paris, sets up the interesting match-up against the 2nd seed Elise Mertens, while another semifinalist Varvara Gracheva is seeded with #6 and waits for the opponent from the qualies stage.
Here is the draw of the WTA 250 Internationaux de Strasbourg:
Martina Trevisan takes up the challenge to defend the title in WTA 250 Rabat. The Italian approaches the Morrocco's event as the top seed, and faces Nuria Parrizas Diaz in the opening round. These are the crucial weeks for Trevisan, who defends 280 points for the last year's victory in Rabat, and another 780 points for the semifinal run from the previous edition of Roland Garros. Another seeds from the main draw's top half are Mayar Sherif, Yulia Putintseva and Linda Fruhvirtova, who should all be favorites in their opening round's matches. The bottom half contains some notable names from the North America. Sloane Stephens is the 2nd seed, and sets up an interesting first round's match against the wild card receiver - Vera Zvonareva. 5th seed Leylah Fernandez starts her Rabat campaign from the match against Sara Sorribes Tormo. Two other seeds - 4th Alycia Parks and 8th Tatjana Maria, will play against the players from qualies.
Here is the draw of the WTA 250 tournament in Rabat:
