2023 WTA Elite Trophy: Krejcikova, Keys & Garcia Among the Big Hitters
There Are No Former Champions in Upcoming 2023 WTA Elite Trophy Singles Draw
Krecjikova Will Be the Top Seed When the WTA Elite Trophy Event Gets Underway
The WTA Elite Trophy is a rather unique event with just a 12-player field with Venus Williams, Petra Kvitova, Julia Görges, Ash Barty and Aryna Sabalenka the former champions.
It is an invitation-only event with players who qualified for the WTA Finals making up the field. Results from the Grand Slams and most of the WTA 1000 events are used to determine the field. Each player will face two opponents in a round-robin format with the winners of the four brackets advancing to the semifinals.
Sabalenka will not be back to defend her title. When looking at the WTA rankings, Caroline Garcia is the lone top-10 ranked player in the field. Daria Kasatkina, Madison Keys, Barbora Krejcikova and Jelena Ostapenko gives the singles field five of the top 15 players.
The tournament was last held in 2019. The 2020 tournament was called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic and no event was held in 2021 or 2022 either.
The tourney begins on Tuesday and will be held at the Hengqin International Tennis Center in Zhuhai, China. The singles final is set for Oct. 29.
When looking at the tennis odds, the next Grand Slam event is the Australian Open in January and among the players in the field Garcia (+2200) and Veronika Kudermetova (+2500) lead the way in the Australian Open outrights.
Here’s a look at the 12-player field.
Breaking Down the Field
Although Garcia would be the top seed under a normal format, she is ninth in the 2023 WTA Elite Trophy event.
Krejcikova is the top-seeded player followed by Madison Keys, Jelena Ostapenko and Liudmila Samsonova.
Maria Sakkari was set to be the top seed before she withdrew from being invited to the event. Petra Kvitova also withdrew as did Belinda Bencic.
Keys, who reached the US Open semifinals, and Beatriz Haddad Maia, the semifinalist at the French Open, are the entrants with the best Grand Slam showings in 2023.
Checking Out the Local Products
“It’s a lot of pressure, you could see in the match. In the first set, I was leading 2-0 and I lost six games in a row,” Zheng told the media after the win over Krejcikova. “There were a lot of ups and downs, but in the end, the important [thing] is to win the match.”
She will be a local favorite in the 2023 WTA Elite Trophy singles draw. In the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, Qinwen posted back-to-back wins over Ostapenko and Kasatkina before falling in the semifinals.
Lin Zhu, who received a wild card into the event, advanced to the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championship finals in her first tournament after eliminating former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka at the US Open in one of the surprising WTA scores in the final Grand Slam event in 2023.
A History Lesson
Looking back at the 2019 event, the biggest surprise was wild card Zheng Saisai advancing ahead of Madison Keys and Petra Martic out of the Orchid Group. All three players had 1-1 records in round-robin play but Saisai was the only one to win more games than she lost in her four sets in the group.
Kiki Bertens topped Donna Vekic and Dayana Yastremska to win the Azalea Group. Karolina Muchova posted wins over Americans Sofia Kenin and Alison Riske. In the Rose Group, Sabalenka won in three sets over Elise Mertens and posted a straight-set victory over Maria Sakkari.
Bertens needed three sets to stop Saisai’s surprising run in the semifinals with Sabalenka edging Muchova 7-5, 7-6 in the semifinals and Bertens 6-4, 6-2 to win the title.
Ash Barty was the No. 9 seed when she won the title in 2018 as none of the top four seeds reached the semifinals.
In 2017, No. 7 seed Julia Gorges topped No. 2 seed CoCo Vandeweghe in the final.
The closest the tournament had of the favorites moving on came in 2015 and 2016.
In 2016, third-seeded Petra Kvitova won the title. No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina reached the final with No. 1 seed Johanna Konta making it to the semifinals. Second-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro withdrew and that helped to open the door for wild card Zhang Shuai to make it to the semifinals.
The first event was held in 2015 with No. 1 seed Venus Williams winning the title despite losing the opening set in each of her two round-robin matches. She edged No. 3 seed Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 7-6 in the finals.
For tennis betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.
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