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Several of the world’s finest players are preparing for the 2023 Porche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany – a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 500 tour event.
Eight of the top nine players in the WTA rankings will be in attendance for the tournament between April 17 and 23, with many other high-profile names also appearing.
The field is headlined by world number one Iga Świątek. The Polish starlet enjoyed an incredible 2022 season as she claimed two major titles -the French Open and the US Open. Success in 2023 has been harder to come by, however, with Swiatek winning just one tour event, the Qatar Open, in February.
She followed that up with defeat in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championship a week later and was a beaten semi-finalist at Indian Wells in early-March. With decent form in 2023, coupled with her title as defending champion in Stuttgart, she will certainly be a contender next week.
Her main opposition will come in the form of Belarusian world number two Aryna Sabalanka. The 24-year-old has been beaten in the final in Stuttgart in two successive years and is one of two players to win two WTA tour events in 2023.
She claimed victory at the Adelaide International 1 event in the first week of January before taking the big victory of the early part of the season, the Australian Open, three weeks later. She also reached the quarter-finals in Dubai, the final in Indian Wells and the quarter-finals in Miami.
Perhaps the form player heading into the tournament is the #6 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. The 23-year-old was the runner-up to Sabalanka in the Australian Open, but reached the quarter-finals in Abu Dhabi, final in Miami and took the title in Indian Wells.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion certainly has the power game to threaten anyone on the court, but she hasn't been prolific on the clay courts.
Ons Jabeur is another contender on form having won the most recent WTA event in Charleston a week ago. The Tunisian reached two major finals in 2022, losing at both Wimbledon to Rybakina and the US Open to Swiatek.
She reached the semi-finals at the Adelaide International 1 event in January but failed to register a quarter-final berth in the following events, until her success in Charleston.
Caroline Garcia, who claimed the WTA Tour title in November last year, is the #4 seed and has enjoyed some success in the smaller WTA 250 events in 2023 - reaching the final of the Lyon Open and Monterrey Open, losing both. She also reached the quarter-finals of a pair of WTA 500 events - Adelaide International 2 and the Qatar Open.
Others likely to contend in Stuttgart include 2023 Auckland Open champion Coco Gauff, Adelaide International 2 finalist Daria Kasatkina and Qatar Open and Indian Wells semi-finalist Maria Sakkari. From a British perspective, 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu is in the draw.