WTA Linz – Generali Ladies Linz Latest

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By Britwatch Team

• Top Seeds: Garbiñe Muguruza, Dominika Cibulkova, Madison Keys, Carla Suárez Navarro
• Defending Champion: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
• CLICK our featured players for stats from TennisAbstract

LINZ, AUSTRIA – In quite possibly the best field this week, the tail-enders on the Road to Singapore all gather in Linz for a push to secure their spot

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Draw & Results

[1] Garbiñe Muguruza

The French Open champion has a lot of points to defend this part of the season, but things have not been working out. The Wuhan finalist and Beijing champion crashed out in the opening round of the former, and came up against an inspired Petra Kvitova in the second.

Hovering just outside qualification cut, she will need a few wins under her belt to wrap her place up. On paper she ought to be a shoe in for a deep run but she has been vulnerable since she won her first Grand Slam title.

That in itself is not strange – she would not be the first maiden Slam champion to have an unsettled run, but the other players have to feel they have a chance while Muguruza struggles to regain her form from last year.

[2] Dominika Cibulkova

Despite making the final of Wuhan and giving her a great chance of booking her place to Singapore, a first round exit at Beijing and Johanna Konta’s run to the final there have pushed Cibulkova down the pack. However, there are just 10 points between them, and their progress in Linz and Hong Kong, in two International tier events with the same points on offer will make it a dash to the finish.

Cibulkova took a wildcard in to Linz and actually has Moscow in hand – Konta has opted to skip that week.  She starts against another fellow wildcard, Belinda Bencic, who has struggled with injuries this year and might just be looking to get through the year back on court again. However defending champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova could be waiting in the quarter-finals.

[3] Madison Keys

It was all within reach in a real showdown in Beijing between the pair currently heading up the Zhuhai leader-board. Keys lost out to an inspired Konta, and now finds herself grabbing a wildcard as well into Linz. The pair have nothing scheduled the next week so it is all or nothing.

Keys could not ask for a more feisty start – she kicks off her campaign against Camila Giorgi and could face Kiki Bertens in the quarter-finals. As with Cibulkova and Konta – each round will count.

[4] Carla Suárez Navarro

Often one of the most under-stated players on the tour, who has a tendency to slip through draws un-noticed, her Asian swing was not a huge success with no back to back wins this time around. She finds herself in 10^th place now in the race and a little under 400 points adrift of Cibulkova and maybe on the way to an alternate place.

She could face the always unpredictable Jelena Ostapenko in the second round, and has Genie Bouchard lurking elsewhere in her bracket.

The Generali Ladies Linz takes place between 10-16 October.