World No. 27 Putintseva set to lead the field at W100 Charleston
World No. 27 Yulia Putintseva is set to headline the field at W100 Charleston – the last in a three-part series of high-prize money events taking place on the ITF World Tennis Tour in the United States.
The 25-year-old Kazakh, who has won six of her seven professional singles titles at ITF level, is set to become the highest-ranked player to feature at a women’s tournament on the ITF World Tennis Tour since Shuai Zhang - who was also ranked No. 27 - in 2016.
Players ranked in the Top 30 have competed at women’s tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour on just 12 occasions over the past decade.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is the highest-ranked player to compete at ITF level in the past 10 years – featuring at a W100 tournament in Nassau, Bahamas just three months before she won her first title at the All England Club in 2011.
Despite her star-billing, the then-world-No. 14 was dealt a shock first-round defeat by Germany’s Kristina Barrois.
Prior to that, Caroline Wozniacki also featured at an ITF women’s tournament at W100 level in Odense in 2008 while the world No. 13. The eventual Australian Open champion fared better than Kvitova, going on to win the title in her hometown event.
Putintseva had been due to feature at the W80 Tyler event the previous week, but was unable to travel due to a delay in receiving her visa.
W100 Charleston is the fourth – and penultimate - W100-level tournament to take place in 2020 following the five-month suspension of the ITF World Tennis Tour, with all three others events at that level taking place in February.
Shelby Rogers took the title at W100 Midland, Olga Govortsova won at W100 Nicholasville and Irena Camelia Begu won at W100 Cairo, while the W100 Dubai title is also up for grabs in December.
Three Americans are among the six Top 100 players set to feature in South Carolina, with world No. 59 Shelby Rogers, No. 72 Lauren Davis and No. 81 Madison Brengle all set to take part.
Davis, in particular, will be hoping for a confidence-boosting run in Charleston as she seeks to snap a six-match losing streak. The 27-year-old hasn’t won a match since defeating French Open semi-finalist Nadia Podoroska in the first round at a WTA tournament in Monterrey back in March.
Davis might be buoyed by thoughts of winning her last professional title, which came at W100 level on American soil when she won at W100 Bonita Springs in Florida in May 2019.
Brengle, meanwhile, is looking for her first match-win since matching her career-best run at the US Open, where she reached the third round for the first time since 2015 before falling to compatriot Rogers.
World No. 86 Misaki Doi and No. 98 Nina Stojanovic complete the line up of top 100 players taking part, while No. 141 CiCi Bellis and No. 113 Marta Kostyuk will be looking to continue their impressive form on American soil, having finished winner and runner-up, respectively, at W80 Macon earlier in the month.