Main draw play in the $783,637 Cymbiotika San Diego Open begins Monday at Barnes Tennis Center with six singles matches and three doubles matches.
Fifth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland is the highest-seeded singles player set to be in action Monday, facing Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first match in the night session, which begins at 5:30 p.m.
Bencic is 15th in the Women’s Tennis Association singles rankings. Sasnovich is ranked 102nd.
Bencic reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open, losing to Romanian Sorana Cirstea, 6-3, 6-3.
The 26-year-old Bencic is an eight-time WTA singles champion, including two this year, the Adelaide International 2 and Abu Dhabi Open, and the Tokyo Olympics. Her highest career ranking is fourth, achieved on Feb. 17, 2020, after she reached the quarterfinals of the St. Petersburg Ladies’ Trophy.
Sasnovich defeated American Varvara Lepchenko 6-3, 6-2, Sunday to earn one of the six spots in the 28-player main draw reserved for qualifiers.
The 29-year-old Sasnovich lost to Magda Linette of Poland, 6-3, 6-1, in a first-round U.S. Open match. She is a four-time WTA singles finalist, most recently the 2022 Tennis in the Land tournament in Cleveland.
This will be the third match between the two. Bencic was a 6-2, 6-3 winner in a fourth-round match in the 2022 Miami Open while Sasnovich was a 2- 6, 6-1, 6-2 winner in a first-round match of the 2018 U.S. Open.
The other night singles match will pit Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, the world’s top-ranked women’s player from July 17-Sept. 10, 2017, and 2016 U.S. Open finalist and 2021 Wimbledon finalist, against Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina.
The 31-year-old Pliskova is ranked 34th and has a 21-17 singles record in 2023, including reaching the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open. She defeated Romanian qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse, 6-1, 6-4, in the first round of the U.S. Open, then lost to Clara Burel of France, 6-4, 6-2, in the second round.
The 26-year-old Kalinina rose to a career-high ranking of 25th May 22 after reaching the final of the Italian Open in Rome. She has since dropped to 28th.
Kalinina lost to Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, 6-4, 7-5, in a first- round match of the U.S. Open.
Pliskova will be seeking her third victory against Kalinina in three matches. She was a 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-2 winner in a third-round match of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February, and a 6-4, 6-0, winner in a first- round match of the 2020 U.S. Open.
The match will be followed by a celebrity match featuring two-time Olympic snowboarding gold medalist Lindsey Jacobellis.
Singles play in the 11:30 a.m. session will begin with a match between American Alycia Parks and Russian Anastasia Potapova on the Stadium Court.
Parks is ranked 46th, Potapova 27th.
Both players lost their first-round U.S. Open matches, Parks to 13th- seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, and Potapova to Clara Tauson of Denmark, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3.
Parks won her first WTA singles championship in February, defeating top-seeded Caroline Garcia of France, 7-6 (7), 7-5, to win the Lyon Open. Potapova won the Linz Open in February for her second WTA singles championship, defeating Croatian Petra Martic 6-3, 6-1.
This will be the first meeting between the two 22-year-olds.
In the following match, 17-year-old Clervie Ngounoue will return to the court where she won the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18 national championship Aug. 13, facing fellow American Katie Volynets, the 2019 USTA Girls’ 18s national champion.
“It feels good to qualify for the main draw,” Ngounoue said after her 6-4, 6-2 victory over Claire Liu Sunday in qualifying play. “I’m glad I got through two rounds. I’ve been here quite a bit recently. I’ve gotten a lot of matches here and I’m happy about that. I feel comfortable on these courts.”
The USTA Girls’ 18s national championship gave Ngounoue a wild card into the main draw of the U.S. Open. She lost her first-round U.S. Open match to Australian Daria Saville, 6-0, 6-2.
Volynets lost to Xin Wang of China, 6-3, 6-4, in the first round of the U.S. Open.
Monday’s singles winners are guaranteed at least $11,500 while the losers will receive $8,310.
Each of the top four singles seeds received first-round byes. Tunisian Ons Jabeur, a three-time Grand Slam singles finalist, is seeded first.
Doubles play Monday includes the top-seeded Czech duo of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, who have teamed to win seven Grand Slam doubles titles, against Garcia and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands.
The tournament will run through Saturday.
–City News Service
