Prague, Czechia, 30 April 2018 | tennis.com.au
Daria Gavrilova and Sam Stosur will face off for the fourth time at a WTA event when they line up opposite each other in the first round in Prague.
Gavrilova, the No.4 seed at the claycourt event, leads the head-to-head 2-1 over Stosur, winning their last match in Sydney in January.
But Stosur won their only match on clay – in last year’s Strasbourg final – and Prague is a happy hunting ground; she reached the final at this event in 2016.
The winner will take on either Denisa Allertova or a qualifier, with No.5 seed Barbora Strycova looming as a potential opponent in the quarterfinals.
The tournament is headlined by top two seeds Karolina Pliskova – who has drawn sister Kristyna in round one – and Petra Kvitova.
At the WTA tournament in Rabat, Morocco, Ajla Tomljanovic has drawn a tough first-round opponent in Pauline Parmentier – the Frenchwoman who won last week’s title in Istanbul.
This week it’s the men’s turn in Istanbul, a tournament that has awarded Bernard Tomic a wildcard.
Tomic, who will make his first competitive outing in more than a month, has drawn No.6 seed Viktor Troicki in the first round, a player against whom he’s 2-2 in the head-to-head series.
Another Aussie in the field is John Millman, who will look to replicate his claycourt form from Budapest when he takes on Dusan Lajovic.
Also earning a wildcard this week was Alex De Minaur, who will line up in the main draw of the 250-level claycourt event in Estoril.
The 19-year-old, who will also partner with Lleyton Hewitt in the doubles draw, takes on local Gastao Elias in the first round.
The winner progresses to a second-round meeting with No.3 seed Kyle Edmund, the Brit who recently reached the final on clay in Marrakech.
