The 2017 Taiwan Open is the second edition of the event, as the sport of tennis – on the heels of Li Na’s success – made a big bet and a lot of investments to bring more tournaments to Asia. The WTA hopes that after last year’s inaugural version, this tournament will continue to grow into a fixture which will boost fan interest and player development in this region of the world.
The competition in the 32-player main draw will begin on Monday, January 30.
Event Details
Event: Taiwan Open
Category: WTA International Level
Date: January 30 – February 5, 2017
Location: Taipei Arena – Taipei, Taiwan
With a prize money allotment of $250,000, the Taiwan Open won’t command quite the same as the St. Petersburg tour stop in Russia the same week. That’s a higher-status event. However, Taiwan is making an attempt to become more of a magnet for WTA tennis, and with the new location for this event – last year it was the nearby city Kaohsiung – it’s almost as though this is a brand-new tournament for the second year running.
Points
Champion – 280
Runner-up – 180
Semifinal – 110
Quarterfinal – 60
Round-of-16 – 30 points
Previous Year’s Champion (only previous version of the tournament)
2016 – Venus Williams def. Misaki Doi, 6-4, 6-2
Player Info For The Taiwan Open:
The defending champion Venus Williams lost in the final round of a major tournament in Melbourne isn’t participating in this year’s event. Although, it’s a crushing blow, the tournament has roped in former top-10 players Samantha Stosur and Lucie Safarova to bolster the field and make the event more exiting.
Here is a look at four of the top eight seeds:
Elina Svitolina has every right to be disappointed after her Australian Open campaign prematurely ended. Svitolina should be utterly devastated that she couldn’t beat an opponent ranked 14 spots below her. The satisfactory part for Svitolina is that she matched her best result (round three) in her least-favorite major. The Ukrainian will enter Taiwan as a top seed but given her hardcourt struggles, she isn’t a safe pick.
Jelena Jankovic is 31-years-old and is ranked 54th in the world, but she continues to fight hard. She takes nothing for granted. That’s exactly what she did against Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Australian Open. Jankovic was getting routed by Kuznetsova in the third round, but she hung in tough and pushed the Russian to the distance. She lost the match in a marathon deciding set, but she can take solace she was close. Jankovic gave herself every chance of winning but lost in clutch moments. The rest of the field in Taiwan knows how tough a competitor the Serbian is due to her defensive prowess. Jankovic may not be the outright favorite for the title but she isn’t too far behind.
Samantha Stosur has played three tournaments this year in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, but she still remains winless this season. One can understand the home-nation pressure. However, Stosur’s three consecutive defeats suggest the problem is more than wilting under pressure. Stosur’s explosive shotmaking is dangerous but her reckless hitting has destroyed her. She is still a top-30 player but has suffered a drastic drop in her level and it won’t be long before her ranking plummets quickly. An early loss here wouldn’t surprise anyone, but given how 30 and above players have performed at the Australian Open, it might just inspire her to play her best tennis again.
On the first day of the Australian Open, 52nd-ranked Shelby Rogers shocked the tennis world with her dominant display to kick world No. 4 Simona Halep out of the tournament. Rogers picks the ball early, moves forward, and stays aggressive. This is how she beat Halep, but unfortunately she was gunned down by an inspired Ash Barty in the second round. With her quick footwork and solid groundstrokes, she is going to be a handful for many in Taiwan.
Taipei Arena
The Taiwan Open’s first year of existence brought the event to Kaohsiung and the Yang-Ming Tennis Centre, which had a 5,000-seat center court, a 650-seat additional stadium, and 10 added courts. This year, though, the Taipei Arena becomes the new host venue for the event in the city of Taipei. The main stadium court has a capacity of 10,000 seats, double what Kaohsiung offered. The prize money likely decreased from last year due to the costs of building the stadium, but if this event survives, the prize purse might go up in 2018.
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