Serena, Sharapova, Azarenka, WTA stars next Tournaments

The first three months in the WTA tour calendar has gone by so fast that it’s now time to switch from winter tennis to outdoor clay courts. The lead up to the next Grand Slam, the French Open, starts with the very first tournament in April at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. The Charleston tennis tournament is currently on-going and features top 10 players Sam Stosur, Marion Bartoli, Vera Zvonareva, and Serena Williams. Former #1 player and Charleston champion Venus Williams is also in the draw.

The next big event is the Stuttgart tennis tournament. Held in the later part of April, 19 of the top 20 WTA players will be in the main draw led by #1 Victoria Azarenka, #2 Maria Sharapova, and one of the tour’s hottest players in #4 Agnieszka Radwanska. These three players currently lead the Race to the WTA Championships rankings with the best results in the first quarter of the season. Azarenka’s dominance in winning four tournament titles so far is the biggest achievement of the season, and with a solid finish in Stuttgart, she would already be a qualifier for the year ending championships in just her seventh tournament.

In Stuttgart, the potential French Open contenders will be known. World #3 Petra Kvitova has achieved well on clay before, and is likely to step up after a poor March performance where she lost in the early rounds of Indian Wells and Miami. Sam Stosur, a former French Open finalist and the reigning US Open champion is a good player in clay as well, and could win her first title of the year during the clay season. Look also for Agnieszka Radwanska to continue challenging Azarenka, and for Sharapova to also aim for her first tournament win of the season.

The biggest tournament in the coming weeks would be Madrid, where all the top 25 players are scheduled to play. Add former French Open finalists and #1 players Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams and that makes Madrid THE clay court tournament to watch before the French Open. Other players to watching for in this clay court season are: defending French Open champion Li Na, former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, and top ranked French player and world #7 Marion Bartoli. Former #1 Caroline Wozniacki will be a heavy favorite to win the Copenhagen tournament where only 2 players in the top 25 are entered.

The busiest players in the top 25 for the next weeks are former #1 Jelena Jankovic and Italian #19 Roberta Vinci. Both are playing four tournaments in the next five weeks:

1. Victoria Azarenka          Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
2. Maria Sharapova            Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
3. Petra Kvitova              Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
4. Agnieszka Radwanska        Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
5. Samantha Stosur            Next Tournaments: Charleston, Stuttgart, Madrid
6. Caroline Wozniacki         Next Tournaments: Copenhagen, Stuttgart, Madrid
7. Marion Bartoli             Next Tournaments: Charleston, Stuttgart, Madrid
8. Li Na                      Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
9. Vera Zvonareva             Next Tournaments: Charleston, Stuttgart, Madrid
10. Serena Williams           Next Tournaments: Charleston, Madrid
11. Andrea Petkovic           Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
12. Francesca Schiavone       Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
13. Sabine Lisicki            Next Tournaments: Charleston, Stuttgart, Madrid
14. Ana Ivanovic              Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
15. Julia Goerges             Next Tournaments: Barcelona, Stuttgart, Madrid
16. Angelique Kerber          Next Tournaments: Copenhagen, Stuttgart, Madrid
17. Jelena Jankovic           Next Tournaments: Charleston, Copenhagen, Stuttgart, Madrid
18. Dominika Cibulkova        Next Tournaments: Barcelona, Stuttgart, Madrid
19. Roberta Vinci             Next Tournaments: Barcelona, Stuttgart, Estoril, Madrid
20. Daniela Hantuchova        Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
21. Maria Kirilenko           Next Tournaments: Estoril, Madrid
22. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova  Next Tournaments: Charleston, Stuttgart, Madrid
23. Peng Shuai                Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
24. Flavia Pennetta           Next Tournaments: Stuttgart, Madrid
25. Svetlana Kuznetsova       Next Tournaments: Fès, Madrid
* 41. Kim Clijsters           Next Tournaments: Madrid
* 87. Venus Williams          Next Tournaments: Charleston, Madrid