The WTA is back on clay for one last time this year as the season makes its annual stop in Scandinavia for Bastad’s Ericcsson Open. The south Swedish seaside town is the country’s center of tennis, hosting both men’s and women’s tournament in a beautiful venue right on the shore.
Tournament organizers always manage to lure big-name players to the Swedish coastal town and 2016 is no different, as past top seeds such as Caroline Wozniacki and Serena Williams are this year succeeded by world #2 Angelique Kerber.
Kerber is far from the only German playing in Bastad this year, since the Swedish tournament is increasingly popular with German players, so Julia Goerges, Laura Siegemund, Mona Barthel and Annika Beck are in the draw as well.
The tournament’s qualifying stage finished on Monday, followed by the first two first-round matches. Italy’s Karin Knapp got past Denisa Allertova, while Anna Karolina Schmiedlova snapped her WTA losing-streak with a straight-set win over Swedish wildcard Susanne Celik, much to the chagrin of the local crowd.
Unfortunately, the day ended in a way that has become synonymous with the 2016 season, as a rain shower caused play to end prematurely, with the first-round encounter between Mona Barthel and Yaroslava Shvedova being pushed to Tuesday.
Tuesday’s order of play is packed with great matches, including the first match of #2 seed Sara Errani, Roland Garros surprise semifinalist Kiki Bertens and the 2015 Ericsson Open champion, Johanna Larsson.
But the major tournament is the kick off of the US Open Series in Stanford. It is hard court season with sunshine everyday, beautiful California and high temperatures of 22C.
We know it, John 🙂