WTA Rogers Cup: Top 16 In The Rankings All Seeded; Eugenie Bouchard To Play In Opening Round

Toronto is the next destination for the WTA as one of the premier warmup events to the US Open. Toronto plays host to the Rogers Cup as a WTA Premier 5 event for the women this year while Montreal will be hosting the men.

The world’s best women will all be headlining the field as the top 16 women in the current WTA rankings will all be seeded for the event. Canadian superstar Eugenie Bouchard will be the clearcut star to play in the opening round as she misses out on a seed due to her extremely poor year this year.

The top seeds

All four women who each have their own quarter have not played since Wimbledon. The winner of all three Grand Slam events so far this year, American Serena Williams, is the overwhelming favorite and top seed at the event with archrival and Australian Open finalist Maria Sharapova seeded second. Williams withdrew from the Bank of the West Classic to make sure she is 100 percent for these bigger events.

Simona Halep is currently lacking confidence and stated that she “has a lot of work to do” before the US Open so a strong showing in Canada will do wonders for her. Petra Kvitova’s coach David Kotyza said that they train so that she isn’t consistent week in, week out. After her quick exit at the All-England Club, her coach may want her to focus on winning the smaller tournaments and Grand Slams.

Last year’s finalists

The two finalists from last year will also be seeded in the draw. Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska has finally figured it out this year with her semifinal showing at Wimbledon. She will be seeded seventh. Venus Williams nearly completed a magical run in Montreal with a title but just fell short. The American will be seeded 15th.

The rest of the field

The wealth of talent in this field that can capture this title is amazing. You don’t have to go far after the seeds to find a list of women capable of lifting the title. Andrea Petkovic can get hot for a week and shock the world. Meanwhile, Victoria Azarenka is a former world number one and slowly continuing to work her way back up the rankings. Her withdrawal from the Citi Open may be beneficial to her in Canada. Madison Keys can completely obliterate anyone off the court at any given moment.

The youngsters cannot be forgotten either. We have already mentioned Madison Keys, but we should also remember Elina Svitolina, Belinda Bencic, and Zarina Diyas can go on a deep run. The American contingency is more than those three names that were brought up before. Sloane Stephens, Madison Brengle, and Varvara Lepchenko are all confirmed in the field while Coco Vandeweghe isn’t officially on the entry list yet with her injury to her shoulder which she suffered at the Citi Open possibly holding her back from committing.

The full list of seeds