After a brief lull that followed the Australian Open, tennis players are back in action, this time in Russia, in the beautiful city of St. Petersburg. The main draw of the Premier-level tournament kicks off tomorrow and our photographer Jimmie48 is already on site this weekend to bring us qualifying and practice photos.
Oceane Dodin, Alize Cornet, Vitalia Diatchenko, Kristie Ahn, Liudmila Samsonova and Anastasia Potapova won the final round of qualifying on Sunday. We have photos from Diatchenko’s 7-6(3) 6-4 victory over Natalia Vikhlyantseva, Potapova’s 6-1 6-3 win over Pauline Parmentier, and Cornet’s elimination of home star Vera Zvonareva 6-3 6-4.
Ajla Tomljanovic was all smiles during her Sunday’s preparation, while Maria Sakkari was practicing with her coach Tom Hill.
Away from the courts, Kristina Mladenovic and Donna Vekic were joined by Dinara Safina for the draw ceremony, while Svetlana Kuznetsova chatted with kids.
Main-draw play starts on Monday, at 1 p.m. local time. Check back to Women’s Tennis Blog for more updates from the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy all week.
