The 2016 Prague Open is a chance for members of the WTA Tour to sharpen their games before a pair of Premier level events in Madrid and Rome arrive. Players seeking match play, or a chance to pounce on extra claycourt points, or better odds of qualifying for future Premier tournaments, are going to go to the country of Czechia, which has been known as the Czech Republic since the fall of Communism in 1989.
The competition in the 32-player main draw began on Monday, April 25.
Event Details
Event: Prague Open
Category: WTA International tier
Date: April 25 – 30, 2016
Location: TK Sparta Praha / Sparta Prague Tennis Club – Prague, Czechia (Czech Republic)
With a prize money allotment of $500,000, there is a welcome boost in pay relative to a lot of the other International tier events you see in the WTA. It is not a surprise, then, that this tournament has a better field than the other International level WTA event which occurs the same week, the event in Marrakech. Prague is the bigger drawing card, and more money is always going to be a lure some players can’t pass up. They would normally take a rest, but not when this much of a prize is potentially on the line.
The points structure under any of the WTA International tier events on the women’s tour will offer 280 player points towards the winner’s ranking, with 180 points going to the tournament’s runner-up. Semifinalists get 110 points, quarterfinalists 60, and round of 16 players 30 points. First round (round of 32) losers get only one point.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2015 – Karolina Pliskova def. Lucie Hradecka – 4-6, 7-5, 6-3
Player Info:
The top seed is Roberta Vinci, currently ranked at 8. The second seed is Svetlana Kuznetsova, who is ranked at 13 and made the Miami final earlier in the year, which is the only reason she’s ranked this high right now. Really, with the two of these headlining, it shows that this tournament is up for grabs at this current point and time. They might be the favorites but if you’re looking for a tournament to bet on to get some value in terms of the long shots, this is one of them. Consider that Vinci only has one tournament win on the year – the St. Petersburg open – and that she’s lost in the first round, quarters, first round, Round of 16, Round of 32 and second round of all subsequent matches means that she’s very vulnerable for an early loss here. As for Kuznetsova, she is now 30 years old, which puts her in the twilight of her career, and she too has just one tournament win on the season. She did well in her last tournament (Miami Open), but hasn’t been past her second match in any of her five previous tournaments before that. If you’re thinking about laying money on her to win it all, just understand that there’s plenty of risk involved with that decision.
The only other players ranked in the top 20 are the third seed, Lucie Safarova, and the fourth seed, Karolina Pliskova, who is the defending champion. The fifth seed is Samantha Stosur. Barbora Strycova is sixth, Jelena Ostapenko is seventh, and Dominika Cibulkova is eighth.
Pullouts include Mona Barthel, Jelena Jankovic, Daria Kasatkina, Christina McHale, and Heather Watson. They will be replaced by Ana Konjuh, Naomi Broady, Hsieh, Su-Wei, Lucie Hradecka, and Olga Govortsova. Some other entrants into the tournament are Jana Cepelova, Katelina Siniakova, Kristyna Pliskova, and Stefanie Vogele.
Sparta Prague Tennis Club
The Sparta Prague Tennis Club is associated with this tournament, and it should be regarded as a place which has enabled the Prague Open to grow. This used to be an ITF Challenger Circuit event, but after several years of being in the equivalent of the minor leagues of tennis, the Prague Open has been able to become a WTA Tour event and, as you can see from the prize money, good enough to get four players in the top 20 of the WTA rankings.
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