The Hologic WTA Tour returns to Europe next week as the European clay-court season gets underway at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
This year, the WTA 500-level tournament features nine of the Top 10, including defending champion Iga Swiatek, two-time runner-up Aryna Sabalenka, along with recent tournament champions Ons Jabeur, Petra Kvitova and Elena Rybakina.
Here’s what you need to know about Stuttgart:
When does the tournament start?
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix is played on indoor red clay at the Porsche Arena, the tournament features a 32-player singles draw and 16-team doubles draw. The Wilson Roland Garros ball will be used.
Now in its 46th staging, Stuttgart once again features an field, an entry cutoff at No.24.
Main-draw play begins on Monday, April 17.
When are the finals?
The singles final will be played on Sunday, April 23 at 1 p.m., with the doubles final to follow.
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Duration 0:00Who are the defending champions?
World No.1 Iga Swiatek is set to return to the Porsche Arena to try and defend her title. Seven women have been able to successfully defend their titles in Stuttgart, the last being Angelique Kerber’s back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2016. Last year, Swiatek won the title on her tournament debut, defeating Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 6-2 to win her fourth consecutive title of the season.
Fresh off her title run in Miami, 2019 champion Petra Kvitova is also in the draw, as is 2018 champion Karolina Pliskova. Along with Swiatek, two additional French Open champions will be in the mix, with Barbora Krejcikova and Jelena Ostapenko ready to go. 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu has received a main-draw wild card.
