Sports
La Costa Serves Up Mercury Insurance Open Tennis
The tournament will run through Aug. 7, with Vera Zvonareva and defending champ Svetlana Kuznetsova the top seeds.
Play in the qualifying draw for the Mercury Insurance Open began at La Costa Resort on Saturday morning, the first day of women’s tennis action in an event that will run through Sunday, Aug. 7. The 56-player singles draw competition starts on Monday. There is also a 16-team doubles draw.
The event offers $721,000 in prize money, including $111,000 to the singles champion. It returned to La Costa last year after a two-year hiatus. Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova won the singles title, beating Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the final. The tournament will be televised on the Tennis Channel and ESPN 2. Tournament ticket packages begin at $70, with daily reserved grandstand and box seat tickets ranging from $10-$125.
Tournament officials announced early this week that two of the top players expected to be in the field won’t be able to compete. Kim Clijsters of Belgium, the two-time defending U.S. Open champion and reigning Australian Open titlist, and 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, have withdrawn due to injury.
Clijsters is still nursing a right ankle injury that forced her to miss Wimbledon this summer. The seventh-ranked Kvitova is suffering from a pulled abdominal muscle.
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“We continue to have an excellent draw that includes world No. 3 Vera Zvonareva, defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and last year’s finalist Agnieszka Radwanska,” said tournament director Raquel Giscafre.
Other WTA players entered include former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, Maria Kirilenko of Russia, Flavia Pennetta of Italy, Daniela Hantuchova and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, and Americans Coco Vandeweghe of Rancho Santa Fe, Christina McHale and Melanie Oudin.
Also entered are Andrea Petkovic, Julia Goerges and Sabine Lisicki, Germany’s top three players. The top four seeds for the women's singles draw are Zvonareva (1), Petkovic (2), Radwanska (3) and Shuai Peng (4) of China.
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On Monday, tennis legend Martina Hingis will play in the Mercury Insurance Open Pro-Am, scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon, at Rancho Valencia Resort, 5921 Valencia Circle in Rancho Santa Fe.
Mercury Insurance Open helpful links:
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