Jul 14, 2008

MASON – Two-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo leads an impressive list of 23 players who’ve made early commitments to the 2008 Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open, which will be played August 9-17 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason.

Mauresmo, who reached the world No. 1 ranking in 2004, owns 24 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles including the Australian Open and Wimbledon. She won both in 2006.

Also on the list are 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli, former world No. 3 and current top-20 player Nadia Petrova, rising Russian star Maria Kirilenko, American Ashley Harkleroad, 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli, 2008 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Tamarine Tanasugarn, 2006 W&SFG Women’s Open finalist Katarina Srebotnik, and 2007 W&SFG Women’s Open doubles champion Bethanie Mattek. 

“Amelie Mauresmo is just a few years removed from being the No. 1 player in the world, and while injuries last year have caused her ranking to dip a little, she’s still a force on the women’s tour,” said tournament director Bruce Flory. “I think our fans are really going to be excited to watch her play here, along with Petrova and Kirilenko and Bartoli, and so many others.”

The 23 players directly accepted into the main draw, their countries and their rankings as of July 8 (the date of the cut-off):

         Player                           Nat       Rank

1       Bartoli, Marion              FRA     10

2       Petrova, Nadia              RUS     18

3       Kirilenko, Maria             RUS     19

4       Srebotnik, Katarina        SLO     24

5       Mauresmo, Amelie        FRA     33

6       Makarova, Ekaterina      RUS     48

7       Cetkovska, Petra          CZE     52

8       Parmentier, Pauline       FRA     59

9       Tanasugarn, Tamarine    THA     60

10      Wickmayer, Yanina        BEL     68

11      Mattek, Bethanie           USA     69

12      Bardina, Vasilisa           RUS     70

13      Kvitova, Petra               CZE     73

14      Harkleroad, Ashley        USA     74

15      Pin, Camille                  FRA     76

16      Craybas, Jill                  USA     78

17      Lisicki, Sabine              GER     79

18      Garbin, Tathiana            ITA       80

19      Nakamura, Aiko            JPN     82

20      Vakulenko, Julia            UKR     83

21      Gallovits, Edina            ROU     84

22      Loit, Emilie                   FRA     86

23      Niculescu, Monica         ROU     87

Bartoli, who reached the Wimbledon final last year before falling to Venus Williams, has three Sony Ericsson WTA Tour titles and three doubles titles. She is 5-3 in Cincinnati, having reached the semifinals here in 2004.

Petrova, who held the world No. 3 spot in 2006, was a semifinalist at the French Open in 2003 and 2005, and has reached the quarterfinals at all four Grand Slams, including Wimbledon last month. She owns seven WTA Tour titles (including Tier I events in Charleston & Berlin), and has reached nine other singles finals. She also owns 12 doubles titles.

Kirilenko is having a career year, having won two Tour singles titles already and reaching the Round of 16 at the Australian Open. She defeated Anna Chakvetadze en route to that fourth-finish at the Australian, and also posted two wins this year over Petrova. Those efforts have helped her break into the Top 20 for the first time in her career. In 2004, she was in the first main draw point of women’s tennis played in Cincinnati since 1988; she lost it, and the match, to Bartoli.

This year, Mattek has reached the Round of 16 at Wimbledon and the semifinals at Birmingham. She has a 5-3 singles record in Cincinnati and reached the first semifinal of her career here in 2005. Last year, she paired with Sania Mirza to win the W&SFG Women’s Open doubles title.

In addition to reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last month, Tanasugarn won the singles title at ‘s-Hertogenbosch. She was ranked No. 19 in 2002.

Harkleroad, who at age 23 is a veteran of the Tour, is having a solid year. She was a semifinalist at Hobart and has posted wins over top-20 players Dinara Safina and Francesca Schiavone.

The tournament will bestow its three wild cards sometime before the draw ceremony, which will be open to anyone with a ticket to the qualifying matches on August 9. It will be held at noon in the Food Court, and adult tickets to the qualifying are only $5, free for kids 14-and-under.

Four spots will be determined by a qualifying tournament held on August 9 & 10.

In addition, two spots in the draw will be reserved for the winner of two ITF events. Anna Tatishvili, a native of the country of Georgia and a current resident of Florida, has claimed one of those spots by winning the ITF event in Boston, Mass., played in June. Milagros Sequera of Venezuela, the winner of the event in Allentown, Penn., which was concluded July 13, gets the other slot in the draw. 

The 32-women’s main draw is comprised of 23 direct acceptances, three wild cards (three spots in the main draw filled at the tournament’s discretion), four qualifiers (four players who win two matches in the 32-draw qualifier on Aug 9 & 10) and two exemptions (two spots are left open for players who win ITF Circuit events in June and July), for a total of 32.

The main draw of the 2008 Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open will be held August 11-17 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, about 25 miles from downtown Cincinnati.

The men’s Western & Southern Financial Group Masters is July 25-August 3 in Mason.