Diyas, Bouzkova headline W100 events in Cairo and Nicholasville
A week on from the first W100 tournament of the new decade in Midland, the momentum ramps up another gear on the women’s ITF World Tennis Tour with two W100 events taking place next week – including the first ever W100 tournament in Egypt.
Cairo, which had not previously staged events beyond $25k level, has underlined its new-found status on the Tour by attracting 15 entrants from players who have held a Top 100 ranking.
Nicholasville, in Kentucky, USA will join the Egyptian capital in hosting another of the highest tier events on the Tour in the week of 10-16 February, boasting a similarly strong line-up.
While world No. 73 Zarina Diyas headlines the field in Cairo, it’s perhaps second seed and world No. 93 Arantxa Rus that should be the one to keep an eye on following a record-breaking 2019 that saw her become the first player to collect 10 titles in a single season on the World Tennis Tour.
The 29-year-old lefthander has already made a strong start to the year, having reached the final at W60 Andrezieux-Boutheon in France last week, ultimately falling to Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure.
She may be the world No. 175, but Elisabetta Cocciaretto could be another one to watch in Cairo. The 19-year-old made her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open last month off the back of a strong end to 2019 that saw her win the biggest titles of her career to date in back-to-back tournaments at W60 Asuncion and W60 Colina in November.
Over in Nicholasville, which is hosting a professional ITF tournament for the first time just a short three-hour flight from this week’s W100 event in Midland, there’s a heavy presence of home-grown players.
Czech world No. 59 Marie Bouzkova, Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya and Australia’s Astra Sharma are the only non-Americans amongst the Top 11 seeds.
World No. 66 Jessica Pegula and No. 95 Madison Brengle lead the line for the Americans, while emerging teenagers Caty McNally and Whitney Osuigwe will also be looking to make their mark.