The 2016 Volvo Car Open is the WTA Tour stop in Charleston, South Carolina, an event formerly known for many years as the Family Circle Cup. This is one of the older non-major, non-European events on the WTA Tour, one which dates back to the original Virginia Slims Tour founded by the pioneers of women’s professional tennis at the beginning of the Open Era. It isn’t red clay, but it is clay – the Har-Tru green clay which briefly existed at the U.S. Open in the mid-1970s. It’s a faster and lighter form of clay which rewards a more aggressive style, but still plays more slowly than a hardcourt surface. In this type of tournament, you’ll want to bet on player who thrive on the clay and use their speed and defense to succeed. The surface is going to neutralize the power hitters and those who rely on a big serve to get the job done.
The competition in the 56-player main draw (byes for the top eight seeds) will begin on Monday, April 4.
Event Details
Event: WTA Volvo Car Open
Category: WTA Premier Level
Date: April 4 – 10, 2016
Location: Family Circle Tennis Center – Charleston, South Carolina, USA
With a prize money allotment of $687,900, this tournament is a very worthwhile destination for players who might not have made a splash in Miami or gained the rankings points they were hoping for.
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 – Angelique Kerber def. Madison Keys – 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
2014 – Andrea Petkovic def. Jana Cepelova, 7-5, 6-2
2013 – Serena Williams def. Jelena Jankovic, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2
2012 – Serena Williams def. Lucie Safarova – 6-0, 6-1
2011 – Caroline Wozniacki def. Elena Vesnina – 6-2, 6-3
Player Info:
While this is just a week after Miami, and while this is on clay and not hardcourts, the traditional nature of this tournament, one of the fixtures on the WTA Tour calendar, is big enough to draw a strong field. Several past champions of this tournament – Jelena Jankovic, Sabine Lisicki, Samantha Stosur, Venus Williams, Andrea Petkovic, and defending champion Angelique Kerber will all be on hand.
Of all these players, none has been having a better season than Kerber, who won the Australian Open and just lost to Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals of Miami. Kerber has risen to No. 2 in the world on the strength of her win in Australia. She is finally playing at the level she always hoped for. She’s now viewed as a main contender for the biggest titles on the tour this year. That’s how a reputation changes after you win a first Grand Slam event.
This tournament will nevertheless be tough for Kerber to win. She has to transition from clay to hardcourt in general, but she also will have less of a rest break compared to a lot of the other players who lost much earlier in Miami and therefore had more time to recover for this tournament. Kerber played with her left thigh wrapped during the loss to Azarenka this past Thursday in Miami. Her movement was not severely limited, but it was limited enough that it made a difference in the match. The field should be manageable in the first two rounds, but as Kerber progresses in this tournament, she might run out of gas.
Family Circle Tennis Center
The longstanding sponsor of this tournament before Volvo was able to help build a tennis facility which hosted the event in Charleston, the city which took over from Hilton Head, South Carolina, in 2001. This is when the Family Circle Tennis Center opened. Its main venue is Volvo Car Stadium, the central court where all the semifinal and final matches will be played. The overall facility holds 20 separate courts. Volvo Car Stadium holds over 10,000 people, a suitably large (but not too huge) stadium for an event this size.
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