The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart starts tomorrow with the main draw action, featuring an absolutely packed field for a WTA 500 event. Six out of the top 10 players headline the star-studded draw, with each quarter led by one of the top four players in the world rankings. Let's take a look of the analysis of main draw before the tournament, which will be fully covered on-site by TennisRatio.com as the official accreditated media.
Aryna Sabalenka is the top seed, coming to Stuttgart with the quest of finally putting her hands on the trophy after being runner-up three times in the last four years. The world number one, who has already proved capable of bringing her A-game on clay courts, is the absolute favorite in the top half after her dominant run in Miami just two weeks ago. However, her first match should not be a cakewalk, as after getting a bye in the opening round, Sabalenka meets the winner of the encounter between Anastasia Potapova and Clara Tauson. The Dane is ranked in the top 8 of the WTA Race, so this surely could be a hit clash in the second round. The match between Potapova and Tauson will be a highlight of the opening evening at Porsche Arena on Monday.
Coco Gauff will try to bounce back after a disappointing couple of weeks, being the 4th seed in Stuttgart. The 2023 US Open champion will start her clay season with a match against the home representative – Tatjana Maria or Ella Seidel. Initially, Maria was set to face Danielle Collins, who withdrew from the tournament after the main draw was revealed. The draw looks interesting for the Germans, as all five home players are placed next to each other in the second quarter. Jule Niemeier will play against Laura Siegemund in another all-German first-round match, while Eva Lys faces 5th seed Jasmine Paolini. In case they get past the home fans’ favorites, Gauff and Paolini could be set for an interesting quarterfinal match-up.
Iga Swiatek tops the bottom half, which seems to be much more stacked than the top one. The Stuttgart champion from 2022 and 2023 is the most current among the players competing this week, as Elena Rybakina did not enter the event, being involved in Kazakhstan’s BJKC campaign in Australia this weekend. Swiatek’s path to the decisive stages will not be a cakewalk. The Pole can meet Donna Vekic in the second round (if Vekic prevails in an all-Croatian match against qualifier Jana Fett). Later on, the bar could be raised even higher, with a possible clash against Emma Navarro (7th seed), or Jelena Ostapenko, who has been a nightmare match-up for Swiatek in all their direct duels so far. This will be a very interesting week to see if the world number two will manage to get back on the winning track on the soil that brought her much success in past years, as she has struggled to deliver in the decisive stages of tournaments in recent months.
Jessica Pegula is the 3rd seed, leading the quarter which brings the two most exciting match-ups of the opening round. Mirra Andreeva will play against last year’s runner-up Marta Kostyuk in an absolute hit clash of the first round. The winner of this match will meet the better of two very solid players – Ekaterina Alexandrova and Liudmila Samsonova, who set up the second very intriguing kick-off stage clash in this section. Alexandrova came up just short against Pegula in the semifinals of the first clay court event in Charleston, losing 5–7 in the decisive set.
