Iga Swiatek leads a strong draw, Raducanu faces Kasatkina in opener at Ostrava Open 2022

OSTRAVA: World No.1 Iga Swiatek leads a strong draw at the Ostrava Open 2022, a WTA 500-level indoor hard-court tournament.

Along with the reigning U.S Open champion, Ostrava features four of the WTA Tour Top 10 and a total of seven major champions, including Elena Rybakina, Emma Raducanu, and Jelena Ostapenko.

Coming off a semifinal run in Seoul, Raducanu will face No.5 seed Daria Kasatkina in the first round. Ostrava will be Kasatkina's first tournament since the US Open. The winner will face either Seoul champion Ekaterina Alexandrova or Victoria Azarenka in the second round.

Swiatek tops the draw, with No.3 Paula Badosa, defending champion and No.4 Anett Kontaveit, and No.7 Maria Sakkari rounding out the Top 4 seeds. All four have byes into the second round.

In her opening match, Swiatek will face either Tokyo semifinalist Zhang Shuai or a qualifier. No.2 seed Badosa will face either Petra Kvitova or a qualifier

Kontaveit and Sakkari head into Ostrava off confidence-boosting weeks in Tallinn and Parma, respectively. Kontaveit advanced to the semifinals in her home tournament in Tallinn and Sakkari made her first final since Indian Wells in Parma.

Sakkari will face either Karolina Pliskova or a qualifier in her opener. Kontaveit faces Jil Teichmann or Tereza Martincova. IANS

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