The 2016 St. Petersburg tour stop is here. Players get at least a one-week break and in some cases, a two-week break, following the Australian Open. It’s going to be interesting to see how the players follow up the first grand slam of the year. Serena Williams looked like the shoe-in to win the Aussie Open but then she came up short in the final against Angelique Kerber. We’ll see if it’s a sign of things to come for both Williams and Kerber or whether it’s simply an aberration.
For the rest of the field, anyone who didn’t go too deep into the Australian Open draw can try to regain some rankings points and make decent money at this WTA Premier event. Some players will be rusty, but all of them will be motivated in an attempt to get their seasons on the right track.
The competition in the 28-player main draw will begin on Monday, February 8.
Event Details
Event: St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy
Category: WTA Premier Level
Date: February 8 – February 14, 2016
Location: Dynamo Tennis Center – St. Petersburg, Russia
With a prize money allotment of $687,900, this tournament
The points structure under the WTA system is that for the women, the championship at a Premier classification means 470 points. A runner-up finish is worth 305. A semifinal result is 185 points, and a quarterfinal appearance offers 100 points. Round-of-16 results will give 55 points.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2015 – Jelena Ostapenko d. Patricia Maria Tig – 3-6, 7-5, 6-2
2009-2014: Not held
2008 – Magdalena Rybarikova d. Anna Lapuschchenko, 6-4, 6-2
2007: Not held
2006 – Alberta Brianti d. Alla Kudryatseva, 6-1, 6-4
2005 – Ekaterina Bychkova d. Emma Laine, 6-1, 6-2
2004 – Anastasia Yakimova d. Emma Laine, – 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
Player Info:
While Belinda Bencic will be the top seed, Roberta Vinci will be the number two seed on the opposite side of the draw, which has not yet been released. Bencic and Vinci get byes into the second round. Caroline Wozniacki is third and Ana Ivanovic is fourth, so those two players will be placed into the opposite halves of this draw as well and receive accompanying byes. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is the fifth seed, Anna Schmiedlova is sixth. Kristina Mladenovic is seventh, and Irina-Camelia Begu is eighth. A couple of dangerous floaters in the draw include Barbora Strycova, Alize Cornet, Margarita Gasparyan, and Yanina Wickmayer. Strycova has reached a major quarterfinal, having done so at Wimbledon in 2014. Cornet hasn’t gotten that far, but she’s beaten Serena Williams at a major tournament before and is a very tough player to play. Gasparyan made the fourth round at the Australian Open in late January. She is rightly seen as an up-and-coming talent. Wickmayer has reached a major semifinal at the U.S. Open, but that was several years ago. She’s trying to get her form and her comfort zone back, and that’s just not the case right now.
The players who will have the most to prove here are Wozniacki, Ivanovic, and Pavlyuchenkova. All three players lost fairly early in Australia, and to players they very likely felt they should beat. With Ivanovic and Pavlyuchenkova, there’s a chronic tendency to squander opportunities. With Wozniacki, it’s more a matter of good cycles followed by a bad one, and this is a bad one.
Dynamo Tennis Center
The 2016 St. Petersburg WTA event will take place on the larger campus of the Dynamo Tennis Center and the club that’s within it. The main central venue is Sibur Arena. This is an indoor tournament, which makes sense given the lack of a tropical locale in the early stages of February in Russia.
Remember that this event is played on a hard-court surface, so if you’re betting on players to succeed here, you’ll want to target the big hitters and big servers. Players that rely on speed and defense are better suited for the clay-court surfaces.
St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy Top Seeds
1. Belinda Bencic
2. Roberta Vinci
3. Caroline Wozniacki
4. Ana Ivanovic
5. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
6. Annal Karolina Schmiedlova
7. Kristina Mladenovic
8. Alize Cornet
Both Elena Vesnina and Caroline Wozniacki received player wildcards into the singles main draw. Mona Barthel and Petra Cetkovska have withdrawn.
