The BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open, which has been a fixture on the WTA calendar since 1996, will not count towards the final standings on the Road to Singapore leaderboard, according to the WTA.
In an article published on Saturday, the Women’s Tennis Association confirmed that points earned in Luxembourg, will not factor towards the final Road to Singapore standings. The reason for this has to do with when the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open is played in the 2015 season. The tournament begins the week of October 19th, exactly one week before the WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, and is scheduled to finish on Sunday. The points accumulated in Luxembourg, will also affect each player’s ranking and chances of qualifying for the WTA Elite Trophy event in Zhuhai — which is played right after the WTA Finals.
Instead, the points accumulated in Beijing — the final Premier Mandatory of the season, Linz, Hong Kong, Tianjin and Moscow will all be added to players’ rankings. This means that the next few weeks of the season will be crunch time for all of the players who are still in contention of qualifying for Singapore or Zhuhai.
As far as the tournament is concerned, it is unfair for the tournament organizers and the Luxembourgers who are tennis fans, because even if they might have a great field, they will be lacking top players because of the scheduling of this event. Had the tournament been scheduled one or two weeks prior, it would attract more of the top players because they could accumulate points at a tournament with a slightly weaker field, in comparison to other WTA events.
With that being said, Ana Ivanovic, Roberta Vinci, Timea Bacsinszky, Andrea Petkovic and Madison Keys are still on the entry list to play in Luxembourg later this month. All five of those women are still in contention of qualifying for Zhuhai, but if they have an incredible next few weeks in Asia, they could qualify for Singapore. Because of this, it should be no surprise to anyone if any of those players withdraw from the tournament before even hitting a ball in Luxembourg.