Emma Raducanu and Simona Halep arrive in Linz for season's final WTA 250 event
Emma Raducanu and Simona Halep arrived in Linz on Saturday for the 31st edition of the Upper Austria Linz Ladies Open. The season's final WTA 250 event is scheduled to be played from November 8-12.
Raducanu arrived at the venue in the afternoon, accompanied by her mother Renee and agent Chris Helliar. The youngster posed for a few pictures, which were later shared by tournament organizers on social media.
The British No. 1 was seen holding a bouquet of flowers as well as an official tournament sign in some of the photographs.
Emma arriving in style!
It‘s freezing in Austria ❄️🧣🧤🇦🇹
@WTA | @EmmaRaducanu | #wtalinz https://t.co/U3du85NWH8
The 2021 US Open champion is the top seed at this year's tournament, the draw for which was released earlier on Saturday.
The field also features two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep as well as Danielle Collins, Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Sorana Cirstea.
Tournament organizers also shared a video of Halep arriving in Linz. The Romanian was greeted with flowers at the train station.
"The amazing Simona Halep arrived by train from Vienna. She returns to Linz for the first time since 2012! It‘s a great pleasure to have you here, Simo!" organizers said on Twitter.
The amazing @Simona_Halep 🇷🇴 arrived by train from Vienna!🚂
She returns to Linz for the first time since 2012! It‘s a great pleasure to have you here, Simo! 🤗
@wta | #wtalinz #visitlinz https://t.co/3UP1QlZsHI
Emma Raducanu gets another shot at playing childhood idol Simona Halep
Emma Raducanu came close to playing her idol Simona Halep at last month's Transylvania Open. The two women were projected to meet in the semifinals, but Raducanu was beaten by Marta Kostyuk in the quarterfinals.
Raducanu and Halep could face off at Linz though. As the top two seeds at the event, they will only be able to meet in the final.
Main draw action at the Upper Austria Linz Ladies Open begins on Monday, with eighth seed Alison Riske taking on Mona Barthel in the pick of the first-round matches.
Our OOP for Sunday is out! 🖨
Which match are you looking forward to? 🤔🍿
@wta | #wtalinz https://t.co/R1XVAeyRE3