First-round singles play begins Monday in the $922,573 Cymbiotika San Diego Open at Barnes Tennis Center with six matches and sixth-seeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine the lone seeded player set to play.
American qualifier Ann Li will face Kostyuk in the final match of the day on the Barnes Stadium court, beginning no earlier than 7 p.m.
Li earned her spot in the 28-player main draw by defeating fellow American Kayla Day, 6-3, 6-0, in 1 hour, 9 minutes on the second and final day of qualifying play Sunday. Li had lost all three of her previous matches against Day.
“She’s always a tough opponent,” the 23-year-old Pennsylvanian said. “I’m glad to pull through and be in the main draw. No expectations, really. I’m just trying to be better, trying to improve, just trying to build on the momentum and see where it goes.”
Li is 167th on the Women’s Tennis Association rankings. Her latest victory in a main draw singles match in a WTA tournament was on Oct. 23, when she defeated Heather Watson of Great Britain, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, in the first round of the Abierto Tampico in Tampico, Mexico.
Since then, Li has lost in the first round of the Dow Tennis Classic, lost in qualifying for the Workday Canberra International and Australian Open and retired in a first-round match of the Puerto Vallarta Open in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last Monday after losing the first game of the third set. The players had split the first two sets, with Li winning the first, 6-3, and Riera the second, 7-5.
Li was a 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 winner over Kostyuk in their only previous meeting, the final of the Bellatorum Resources Pro Classic, an $80,000 Women’s U. S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit event in Tyler, Texas on Nov. 1, 2020.
The 21-year-old Kostyuk is ranked 34th, six spots below her career best achieved Jan. 28 after she reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, losing to American Coco Gauff, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 6-2.
Kostyuk will be playing for the first time since retiring from her second-round match of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open Feb. 13, when she was trailing Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 2-1.
Play will begin at 1 p.m. on the Barnes Stadium court with Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko facing Katie Boulter of Great Britain. Australian qualifier Daria Saville will meet Lin Zhu of China in the second match. Clara Tauson of Denmark will face Xinyu Wang of China in the third match, which will begin at 4:30 p.m. or later.
German qualifier Jule Niemeier will face Varvara Gracheva of France in the first singles match on Court 2, which will start no earlier than 1:30 p.m. The following match will pit Russian Marina Melnikova against Canadian Marina Stakusic, a fellow qualifier.
Monday’s singles winners are guaranteed at least $13,590 while the losers will receive $9,820.
Each of the top four seeds received first-round byes. American Jessica Pegula is the top seed.
Monday is Military Appreciation Day. All military members in uniform will receive free admission while active members of the military and veterans will receive a 50% discount on tickets by emailing info@wtasdopen.com for a special military discount code.
A color guard ceremony and a Wound Warrior clinic are also scheduled.
The tournament is set to conclude Sunday. The winner will receive $142,000.
–City News Service
