Led by Timea Bacsinszky and Belinda Bencic, the entire Swiss tennis elite will gather in Lugano in mid-April.
From 1981 to 1986, the WTA Tour stopped off in the Swiss sunshine capital six times. The "Samsung Open presented by Cornèr" will take place from April 9 to 15 at the same venue as back then, when renowned stars such as Chris Evert, Gabriela Sabatini and Manuela Maleeva attracted fans to the TC Lido Lugano.
The Swiss elite will be fully represented at the first international women's tournament of this year's sand season: The currently top-ranked Timea Bacsinszky (WTA 42) is the only one in the main draw. Her Fed Cup colleagues Victorija Golubic, Jil Teichmann as well as former star Patty Schnyder and Stefanie Vögele will have to go through qualifying or hope for a wild card.
Even Belinda Bencic, who narrowly missed the cut as number 68, will have to rely on a wild card. However, the 21-year-old from eastern Switzerland can currently still hope that a few international stars will be able to move up.
Among them, Bencic's friend, French world number 15 Kristina Mladenovic, sets the tone. There are 17 girls from the top 60 in the main draw, which looks strong even without the top 10 players - including Australian Open semi-finalist Elise Mertens (WTA 22) from Belgium, Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro, Estonia's Anett Kontaveit, Stan Wawrinka's girlfriend Donna Vekic (Croatia) and Marketa Vondrousova, the sensational Czech winner, who will try to defend her title from last year in Biel.
SAMSUNG OPEN PRESENTED BY CORNÈR 2018
09-15.04.18, TC Lido Lugano
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