2010 BNP Paribas Open: Women’s Tennis Association seeds Part I
The 2011 BNP Paribas Open is slated to take place at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California this week. As one of the only completely combined tournaments on the tennis circuit, it involves both the Association of Tennis Professionals [ATP] and the
Women’s Tennis Association [WTA]. The women’s singles draw consists of 96 players, with the 32 highest ranked players being awarded byes to the second round. These top seeds will be shortly analysed in this article.
World Number 1 Caroline Wozniacki
Danish tennis pro Caroline Wozniacki lost the top spot on the WTA rankings for some days earlier in the season, but quickly regained it to return to her place as World Number 1. The 21-year-old player managed to reach the finals of the BNP Paribas Open tournament
last year in 2010, but lost the title match to Jelena Jankovic in straight sets 6-2, 6-4. She also managed to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament in 2009, before being defeated by eventual champion Vera Zvonareva.
“Sunshine” Wozniacki will be looking for a victory at the tournament this year, as the critics have been questioning her ruthlessly about her lack of Grand Slam titles. Being the most prestigious event after the Big Four, the Indian Wells tournament could
be Wozniacki’s path to redemption. Although a Premier Mandatory event victory will not give her the same acclaim as a Grand Slam victory, it may give her the confidence required to perform well on clay in the next major tournament.
World Number 2 Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters of Belgium has been flying high this season, starting off her Grand Slam run with a successful campaign at the Australian Open. After this, the World Number 2 took over the top position from Wozniacki from a few days and completed her comeback
mission of becoming the top player in the world once again. She participated in the 2010 BNP Paribas Open last year, and received a bye in the first round as 14th seed. However, she lost her third-round match to Alisa Kleybanova, who was seeded
23rd.
The Belgian has been in great perform so far this year, and barring unforeseen circumstance she should be able to make it to the final stages of the tournament. In addition to this, the player has lifted the trophy for this event twice before.
Having already achieved what she had set out to receiver on her return, she may be lacking in motivation required to proceed in such a tournament.
The next two seeds will be discussed in Part II of this series.
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