St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy 2021: Draw analysis, preview & prediction
The 2021 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy will get underway on Monday, with home favorites Ekaterina Alexandrova and Veronika Kudermetova leading the field as the first and second seed respectively.
Fiona Ferro is the third seed, while veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova is the fourth. All of the top four seeds have received a bye in the first round. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Jelena Ostapenko, Kristina Mladenovic and Daria Kasatkina complete the eight seeds at the event.
Now that the draw of the 2021 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy has been revealed, let us take a look at the prospects of the big names in the fray.
Top half: Ekaterina Alexandrova leads the way at St. Petersburg
Seeded players:[1] Ekaterina Alexandrova, [3] Fiona Ferro, [5] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, [7] Kristina Mladenovic
Expected semifinal: Ekaterina Alexandrova vs Fiona Ferro
Dark horse: Tereza Martincova
Analysis: Ekaterina Alexandrova hasn't been in the best touch lately. After a semifinal run at the Gippsland Trophy - where she beat Simona Halep and Iga Swiatek - Alexandrova has struggled to put together consistent results.
She suffered opening round defeats at Lyon and Dubai, which would have dented her confidence a fair bit. But she is still a player capable of delivering the goods, and might be especially motivated given that she is playing in her home event.
One of Stefanie Voegele or Tereza Martincova would await Alexanderova in the second round. Martincova looked good at Dubai and Lyon, where she scored seven wins combined, including qualifiers.
The Czech ousted Krystina Pliskova and Kiki Bertens in Dubai, on her way to the third round. Interestingly, she fell short against Coco Gauff, who had narrowly defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova in the first round.
Kristina Mladenovic is Alexandrova’s likely quarterfinal opponent, and she opens her campaign against Margarita Gasparyan. This would be their second meeting in as many weeks; Mladenovic beat Gasparyan 6-4, 6-2 in Lyon.
One of Katerina Siniakova or Kirsten Flipkens would await the winner of the Mladenovic-Gasparyan match in the second round. Neither player boasts of any noteworthy performance in 2021, but Siniakova might have a slight edge given that she is coming in with more match-practice under her belt.
Fiona Ferro has been drawn to face veteran Vera Zvonareva or a qualifier in the second round. Ferro has been in decent form over the last month, making it to the third round at the Australian Open and the semifinals at Lyon.
The Frenchwoman looks primed to make a deep run at St. Petersburg, seeing how there are not many big names around her barring Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Semifinal prediction: Kristina Mladenovic vs Fiona Ferro
Bottom half: Veronika Kudermetova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Ostapenko fight for supremacy
Seeded players: [2] Veronika Kudermetova, [4] Svetlana Kuznetsova, [6] Jelena Ostapenko, [8] Daria Kasatkina
Expected semifinal: Veronika Kudermetova vs Svetlana Kuznetsova
Dark horse: Jelena Ostapenko
Analysis: Unlike the top half, the bottom half does not boast a lot of renowned names. Veronika Kudermetova headlines this section, and will face either Daria Mishina or a qualifier in the second round (after a first-round bye).
Daria Kasatkina could be a tricky opponent for Kudermetova in the quarterfinals, assuming she makes it that far. Kasatkina recently won the Phillip Island trophy, but got knocked out in the first round at Dubai.
Kasatkina has been drawn against a qualifier in her first-round match. If she wins that, the Russian will face one of Ana Bogdan or Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Bogdan and Sasnovich are pretty much neck-and-neck in the rankings (101 and 97, respectively). They have also had difficulty stringing together consecutive victories in 2021, making this the perfect opportunity to find their feet on tour.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, meanwhile, refuses to fade away. Despite being in the twilight of her career, the two-time Slam champion can still hold her own against most of the top-ranked players.
At Dubai, Kuznetsova ousted top seed Elina Svitolina in three sets before getting knocked out by eventual runner-up Barbora Krejcikova. The former World No. 2 is drawn to face a qualifier or Viktoriya Tomova in the second round, after a first-round bye.
Tomova, ranked No. 140 in the world, is a big name in the ITF circuit, where she boasts of 16 titles. Tomova recently gave a scare to the in-form Elise Mertens, taking a set off the Belgian during their first-round encounter in Dubai.
Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko takes on Paula Badosa in her first-round match.
Badosa is coming off a semifinal run at Lyon, where she beat Kristina Mladenovic and Stefanie Voegele. But the Spaniard is not known to be the most consistent player, and Ostapenko will start their match as the favorite.
In the second round, Ostapenko could face one of Vera Lapko or a qualifier.
It is also pertinent to note that teenage phenom Clara Tauson has come through the qualifying rounds at St. Petersburg to get into the main draw. But at the time of writing, she is yet to be officially drawn against an opponent.
Tauson recently won the Lyon Open, beating Ekaterina Alexandrova and Paula Badosa along the way. Given the form that the Dane displayed in the French city, it would be unwise to discount her from making a deep run at St. Petersburg.
Semifinal prediction: Veronika Kudermetova vs Svetlana Kuznetsova
Predicted final
Veronika Kudermetova vs Kristina Mladenovic
Predicted champion
Veronika Kudermetova