PREVIEW NOTES: GRAMPIANS TROPHY MELBOURNE, AUS | FEBRUARY 3-7, 2021 | USD $235,820 WTA 500 WTA Website: www.wtatennis.com | @WTA | facebook.com/wta WTA Communications: Catherine Sneddon ([email protected]), Adam Lincoln ([email protected]), Chase Altieri ([email protected]) GRAMPIANS TROPHY – QUICK FACTS Main draw dates: February 3-7, 2021 Singles Final: Sunday, February 7, time TBC Venue: Melbourne Park Tennis Centre Status: WTA 500 Staging: Tournament’s first year Draw sizes: 28 singles Surface: Greenset Cushion / Outdoor Total prize money: USD $235,820 Tennis Ball: Dunlop AO SINGLES USD $ RANK POINTS Winner 50,000 470 Runner-Up 33,520 305 Semifinalist 18,610 185 Quarterfinalist 8,770 100 Round of 16 5,500 55 Round of 32 3,000 1 MAIN DRAW QUICK-HITS Seeds: Bianca Andreescu, Belinda Bencic, Victoria Azarenka, Elena Rybakina, Maria Sakkari, Anett Kontaveit, Jennifer Brady, Angelique Kerber Most career WTA singles titles: Victoria Azarenka (21) Youngest singles player: Leylah Fernandez, 18 years old (September 6, 2002) Oldest singles player: Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 35 years old (March 23, 1985) TOURNAMENT TALKING POINTS • One of three WTA 500 tournaments taking place at the Melbourne Park Tennis Centre before the 2021 Australian Open, along with the Yara Valley Classic and the Gippsland Trophy. • Four of the Top 20 players in the world are in the draw, including former Bianca Andreescu and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, who are seeded No.1 and No.3, respectively. • Andreescu and Azarenka will both receive first-round byes, along with No.2 seed Belinda Bencic and No.4 seed Elena Rybakina. • Arguably the pick of the opening round matches sees former US Open champion Sloane Stephens take on the ever-improving Leylah Fernandez. The winner of this will face Andreescu in the second round • Of the eight seeds, four were involved in the first tournament of the season at Abu Dhabi: Rybakina (QF), Sakkari (SF) Anett Kontaveit (1r) and Jennifer Brady (1r). • One to Watch – Marta Kostyuk. After announcing herself to the tennis world at just 15 with a run through qualifying to the third round at the Australian Open in 2018, Kostyuk spent much of the next two years struggling to repeat her breakthrough success. However, at last year’s US Open the Ukrainian provided a timely reminder of her considerable talents by reaching the third round, where she pushed eventual champion Naomi Osaka to three sets. This result helped her finally crack the Top 100 at the year’s end and she has picked up where she left off at the start of 2021 in Abu Dhabi by reaching her maiden WTA semifinal. Follow WTA on Twitter: www.twitter.com/WTA Facebook: www.facebook.com/WTA YouTube: www.youtube.com/WTA 1 PREVIEW NOTES: GRAMPIANS TROPHY MELBOURNE, AUS | FEBRUARY 3-7, 2021 | USD $235,820 WTA 500 COUNTRY AND REGION BREAKDOWN A total of 15 countries and regions are represented in the main draw, led by the United States with seven players: Belarus (1) Victoria Azarenka Canada (3) Bianca Andreescu, Gabriela Dabrowski, Leylah Fernandez Czech Republic (3) Barbora Krejcikova, Katerina Siniakova, Barbora Strycova Estonia (1) Anett Kontaveit Germany (1) Angelique Kerber Great Britain (1) Heather Watson Greece (1) Maria Sakkari Kazakhstan (2) Yulia Putintseva, Elena Rybakina Romania (1) Sorana Cirstea Russia (3) Anna Blinkova, Veronika Kudermetova, Svetlana Kuznetsova Spain (1) Georgina García Perez Switzerland (1) Belinda Bencic Tunisia (1) Ons Jabeur Ukraine (1) Marta Kostyuk United States (7) Jennifer Brady, Lauren Davis, Ann Li, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Christina McHale, Alison Riske, Sloane Stephens 2021 WTA TOUR FINALS Week of Level Tournament Singles Final Doubles Final January 6 WTA 500 Abu Dhabi, UAE [4] Sabalenka d. Kudermetova 62 62 [5] Aoyama/Shibahara d. [8] Carter/Stefani 76(5) 64 2021 & CAREER PRIZE MONEY LEADERS PLAYER 2021 TOTAL Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) $68,570 Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) $52,285 Marta Kostyuk (UKR) $28,525 Maria Sakkari (GRE) $27,755 Sofia Kenin (USA) $16,850 PLAYER CAREER TOTAL Serena Williams (USA) $93,634,967 Venus Williams (USA) $41,958,284 Maria Sharapova (RUS) $38,777,962 Simona Halep (ROU) $37,045,910 Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) $35,233,415 Petra Kvitova (CZE) $32,572,604 Victoria Azarenka (BLR) $32,347,288 Angelique Kerber (GER) $29,853,978 Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) $27,683,807 Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) $25,483,600 Follow WTA on Twitter: www.twitter.com/WTA Facebook: www.facebook.com/WTA YouTube: www.youtube.com/WTA 2 PREVIEW NOTES: GRAMPIANS TROPHY MELBOURNE, AUS | FEBRUARY 3-7, 2021 | USD $235,820 WTA 500 A SNAPSHOT OF LAST SEASON • Top 10 Debut (1): Sofia Kenin (at No.7 on February 3) • Fewest games dropped en route to a title: Jennifer Brady (24, Lexington) • Lowest-ranked player to triumph: Patricia Maria Tig (No.88, Istanbul) • Most titles (3): Simona Halep: 3 (Dubai - W; Prague - W; Rome - W); Aryna Sabalenka: 3 (Doha – W; Ostrava – W; Linz – W) • Maiden titles (4): Ekaterina Alexandrova (Shenzhen), Jennifer Brady (Lexington), Patricia Maria Tig (Istanbul), Iga Swiatek (Roland Garros) • Youngest title winner: Iga Swiatek, Roland Garros (19y 132d) • Oldest title winner: Serena Williams, Auckland (38y 108d) • Aces leaders: Elena Rybakina – 193, Serena Williams – 178, Aryna Sabalenka – 165 • Most aces in a match (22): Alison Van Uytvanck (l. vs. Sofia Kenin 7-6(5) 6-7(2) 7-6(2) – Lyon, SF) • Match win leaders: Elise Mertens – 34, Elena Rybakina – 29, Aryna Sabalenka – 29, Sofia Kenin – 24 • Most three-set wins (11): Aryna Sabalenka (11-5 record) • Most doubles titles (4): Barbora Strycova / Hsieh Su-Wei (Brisbane, Dubai, Doha, Rome) • Best result by a qualifier (R-Up): Kung (Hua Hin), Fernandez (Acapulco), Bouchard (Istanbul) • Longest match: 3h 33m – Heather Watson d. Elise Mertens 6-7(5) 6-4 7-5 (Hobart, QF) • Shortest (completed) match: 39m – Ekaterina Alexandrova d. Storm Sanders 6-1 6-0 (Strasbourg, 1r) • Most Top 10 wins (3): Garbiñe Muguruza (No.3 Simona Halep, No.5 Elina Svitolina and No.10 Kiki Bertens – all at Australian Open); Jelena Ostapenko (No.7 Sofia Kenin in Fed Cup, No.8 Kiki Bertens at Strasbourg, No.4 Karolina Pliskova at Roland Garros); Maria Sakkari (No.5 Belinda Bencic at St. Petersburg, No.9 Serena Williams at Western & Southern Open, No.5 Elina Svitolina at Ostrava) Follow WTA on Twitter: www.twitter.com/WTA Facebook: www.facebook.com/WTA YouTube: www.youtube.com/WTA 3 ALPHABETIC PLAYER LIST MAIN DRAW SINGLES 2021 Grampians Trophy - Melbourne, Australia RANK SEED CAREER @ TRN YEAR-TO-DATE CAREER CAREER HGH TITLES PLAYER NAME 1/25/2021 NAT AGE PRIZE W / L PRIZE W / L PRIZE W / L RANK DATE YTD CAR ANDREESCU, BIANCA 8 CAN 20 000/ 0 / 6,720,038 137 /350 4 10/21/2019 AZARENKA, VICTORIA 13 3 BLR 31 000/ 0 / 32,347,288 524 /21204 1 1/30/2012 BENCIC, BELINDA 12 2 SUI 23 000/ 0 / 8,167,812 274 /4152 4 2/17/2020 BLINKOVA, ANNA 61 RUS 22 000/ 0 / 1,497,875 178 /0113 54 2/3/2020 BRADY, JENNIFER 24 7 USA 25 000/ 0 / 3,329,416 226 /1155 24 10/26/2020 CIRSTEA, SORANA 72 ROU 30 000/ 0 / 5,828,599 453 /1340 21 8/12/2013 DABROWSKI, GABRIELA 492 CAN 28 000/ 0 / 2,832,982 197 /0203 164 11/3/2014 DAVIS, LAUREN 75 USA 27 000/ 0 / 3,160,009 293 /1210 26 5/22/2017 FERNANDEZ, LEYLAH 89 CAN 18 000/ 0 / 413,017 81 /048 88 10/26/2020 KERBER, ANGELIQUE 25 8 GER 33 000/ 0 / 29,853,978 630 /12336 1 9/12/2016 KOSTYUK, MARTA 78 UKR 18 000/ 0 1,010/ 345,909 103 / 49 78 1/18/2021 0 0 KREJCIKOVA, BARBORA 66 CZE 25 000/ 0 / 2,970,249 270 /0155 65 11/16/2020 KUDERMETOVA, VERONIKA 36 RUS 23 000/ 0 / 1,676,537 238 /0160 38 2/3/2020 KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA 37 RUS 35 000/ 0 / 25,483,600 663 /18339 2 9/10/2007 LI, ANN 99 USA 20 000/ 0 / 444,104 112 /065 97 11/9/2020 MATTEK-SANDS, BETHANIE 339 USA 35 000/ 0 / 7,863,390 369 /0309 30 7/11/2011 MCHALE, CHRISTINA 82 USA 28 000/ 0 / 4,398,563 361 /1304 24 8/20/2012 PUTINTSEVA, YULIA 28 KAZ 26 000/ 0 / 4,756,428 300 /1232 27 2/6/2017 RISKE, ALISON 26 USA 30 000/ 0 / 5,115,246 373 /2295 18 11/4/2019 RYBAKINA, ELENA 19 4 KAZ 21 000/ 0 / 1,466,978 170 /274 17 2/24/2020 SAKKARI, MARIA 22 5 GRE 25 000/ 0 / 3,540,619 327 /1220 20 2/24/2020 SINIAKOVA, KATERINA 59 CZE 24 000/ 0 / 6,226,331 256 /2180 31 10/22/2018 STEPHENS, SLOANE 40 USA 27 000/ 0 / 15,559,105 297 /6207 3 7/16/2018 STRYCOVA, BARBORA 38 CZE 34 000/ 0 / 11,967,405 564 /2410 16 1/16/2017 WATSON, HEATHER 58 GBR 28 000/ 0 / 3,909,405 317 /4251 38 1/19/2015 Page 1 of 1 Date: 2/1/2021 17:53:12 entry Please credit WTA Media Information System MATCH NOTES: GRAMPIANS TROPHY MELBOURNE, AUS | FEBRUARY 3-7, 2021 | USD $235,820 WTA 500 WTA Website: www.wtatennis.com | @WTA | facebook.com/wta WTA Communications: Catherine Sneddon ([email protected]), Adam Lincoln ([email protected]), Chase Altieri ([email protected]) [3] VICTORIA AZARENKA (BLR #13) VS. YULIA PUTINTSEVA (KAZ #28) Head-to-head: First meeting AZARENKA PUTINTSEVA Career Prize Money $32,347,288 Career Prize Money $3,964,966 Plays Right-handed Plays Right-handed Date of Birth (Age) Jul 31, 1989 (31) Date of Birth (Age) Jan.