Francesca Schiavone will kick off 2013 season from Hobart International – Tennis News
Italian tennis ace, Francesca Schiavone, will be seen in action on the Tasmanian hard courts right at the beginning of the 2013 WTA season. She will be among the hot favourites for winning the season-opening Hobart International
tournament, scheduled to begin from 4th January next year.
The WTA Tour event will feature a more competitive players’ field this time, including the likes of 25th ranked Taiwanese contender, Su-Wei Hsieh, Romanian tennis prodigy, Sorana Cirstea and the Russian diva, Vera Zvonareva.
Schiavone is the most experienced of them all and is eyeing to kick off the New Year with a title victory at Hobart.
"We are thrilled to welcome a Grand Slam champion to Hobart. Schiavone definitely adds some star power to our line-up," said tournament director Mark Handley.
Handley also cited that more players are showing their inclination of being part of Hobart International and their confirmation will be made public in the coming weeks. The hard court event will be a perfect practicing ground for
players to warm up before the season’s first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open.
Formerly ranked at number four in the WTA Premier Rankings, the 32-year-old veteran had a drastic season this year, falling multiple spots in the women’s tennis rankings. She took off the 2012 circuit as the world number 11 but
finished at number 35 position, with merely one championship title in her bag. Schiavone featured in a total of 47 matches this year, suffering defeats in 25 and barely managing to win 22.
Schiavone’s Grand Slam voyages didn’t yield anything and she kept on struggling against inferior-ranked opponent. The only brilliant run she had was at the WTA event in Strasbourg, where she outplayed the French veteran, Alize
Cornet, in twin sets, 6-4, 6-4, to claim her maiden championship title of the season. She couldn’t reach any other title match in the following tournaments and her rankings kept declining. The last encounter she had was at the Kremlin Cup, Moscow, suffering
a humiliating straight-sets defeat at the hands of the Polish youngster, Urszula Radwanska. Schiavone will be aiming to reclaim her vintage glory in the upcoming professional circuit and Hobart International is a perfect opportunity for her to begin with.
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