ORDER OF PLAY
CENTRE COURT -- 10:00 a.m. start
Daria KASATKINA (RUS) vs. WANG Qiang (CHN)
Veronika KUDERMETOVA (RUS) vs. [10] Anett KONTAVEIT (EST)
[9] Maria SAKKARI (GRE) vs. Anastasia POTAPOVA (RUS)
Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS) vs. [15] Ons JABEUR (TUN)
[16] Donna VEKIC (CRO) vs. Bernarda PERA (USA)
[17] Ekaterina ALEXANDROVA (RUS) vs. Zarina DIYAS (KAZ)
COURT 1 -- 10:00 a.m. start
Final round qualifying -- [7] Despina PAPAMICHAIL (GRE) vs. YANG Zhaoxuan (CHN)
Final round qualifying -- Lucrezia STEFANINI (ITA) vs. [15] Irina FETECAU (ROU)
Martina TREVISAN (ITA) vs. [13] Yulia PUTINTSEVA (KAZ)
Ajla TOMLJANOVIC (AUS) vs. ZHU Lin (CHN)
Anastasija SEVASTOVA (LAT) vs. Paula BADOSA (ESP)
Leylah FERNANDEZ (CAN) vs. Jasmine PAOLINI (ITA)
COURT 2 -- 10:00 a.m. start
Final round qualifying -- [6] Anna BONDAR (HUN) vs. [13] Jessica PIERI (ITA)
Final round qualifying -- [3] Jodie BURRAGE (GBR) vs. [11] Amandine HESSE (FRA)
Laura SIEGEMUND (GER) vs. Kirsten FLIPKENS (BEL)
Garbiñe MUGURUZA (ESP) / Jennifer BRADY (USA) vs. Jessica PEGULA (USA) / Coco GAUFF (USA)
Barbora KREJCIKOVA (CZE) vs. Jamie LOEB (USA)
COURT 3 -- 10:00 a.m. start
Final round qualifying -- Lucie HRADECKA (CZE) vs. Carol ZHAO (CAN)
Final round qualifying -- [4] Valentini GRAMMATIKOPOULOU (GRE) vs. [10] Kateryna BONDARENKO (UKR)
Giuliana OLMOS (MEX) / Sharon FICHMAN (CAN) vs. Lyudmyla KICHENOK (UKR) / Kaitlyn CHRISTIAN (USA)
COURT 4 -- 10:00 a.m. start
Final round qualifying -- Ena SHIBAHARA (JPN) vs. [12] Anastasia GASANOVA (RUS)
Not Before 11:30 AM
Final round qualifying -- [14] Martina CAREGARO (ITA) vs. Bianca TURATI (ITA)
MATCH POINTS
The first WTA main draw of the 2021 season kicks off on Wednesday with opening-round action in the first edition of the Abu Dhabi WTA Women’s Tennis Open. This season's kick-off tournament takes place at the Zayed Sports City International Tennis Centre, previously home to the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event.
The opening match on Centre Court pits Russia's Daria Kasatkina against China's Wang Qiang, in a battle of former Top 12 players. The pair has faced off a hefty five times previously, with former World No.10 Kasatkina coming out the victor in four of those encounters. However, this will be their first meeting since the Russian edged out a 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 win in Zhuhai at the end of 2018.
Head to Head
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No.10 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia will meet Veronika Kudermetova in the second match of the day on the main court. World No.46 Kudermetova has beaten Kontaveit in straight sets in both of their two previous meetings, but this will be their first clash since the Russian claimed an upset on the grass courts of 's-Hertogenbosch in 2018.
No.9 seed Maria Sakkari will attempt to avenge her loss to Russian teenager Anastasia Potapova in their only previous meeting. Potapova upset Sakkari via a final-set tiebreak during the Russian's debut WTA qualifying appearance at the 2017 Miami Open.
19-year-old Potapova is one of five teens to have received direct acceptance into this week's main draw, along with Coco Gauff (16 years old), Leylah Fernandez (18 years old), Marta Kostyuk (18 years old), and Wang Xiyu (19 years old).
Happy to be back 😃✌️ pic.twitter.com/idlkMCQas0
— wta (@WTA) January 4, 2021
No.15 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia takes a 1-0 head-to-head lead into her match with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, as she beat the Russian in Dubai in 2017. Jabeur became the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal at last year's Australian Open. Pavlyuchenkova has also had success at that major, making the Australian Open quarterfinals in three of the last four seasons.
No.17 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia will face Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas in the Centre Court nightcap, which will be the first meeting between the two. Alexandrova was one of four first-time singles titlists on the WTA last season, triumphing at Shenzhen. Last year's other first-time singles titlists were Iga Swiatek (Roland Garros), Jennifer Brady (Lexington), and Patricia Maria Tig
(Istanbul).
Main Draw play begins on Wednesday, January 6th. For all the live scores from the Abu Dhabi WTA Women's Tennis Open, click here.
