The 2016 BNP Paribas Katowice Open is a tournament which fills a spot vacated on the WTA schedule after a tournament in Sopot and then Warsaw needed another home. This tournament is about to begin only its fourth edition. In 2013, the tournament was held on indoor clay, but in 2014, it moved to indoor hardcourts. This is therefore an in-between tournament in the sense that most of the tour is moving to clay for the start of clay season. Players who do not love clay and feel more comfortable on hardcourts will use this tournament to get some match wins and rankings points.
The competition in the 32-player main draw will begin on Monday, April 4.
Event Details
Event: BNP Paribas Katowice Open
Category: WTA International Level
Date: April 4 – 10, 2016
Location: Spodek Hall – Katowice, Poland
With a prize money allotment of $250,000, there’s not a huge grab bag in terms of money, but that’s to be expected in an event which is on hardcourts at a time when other WTA tournaments are shifting to clay in preparation for the big swing through Madrid, Rome, and then Roland Garros for the French Open. Moreover, since the two very lucrative events in Indian Wells and Miami will have been completed – drawing a lot of top players in the process – those same top players will generally take time to rest and recover, getting a break before the clay season. Therefore, one should not ever think that the week after Miami will have a high-end tournament on offer.
The points structure under the WTA system is that for the women, the championship at an International level tour event means 280 points. A runner-up finish is worth 180. A semifinal result is 110 points, and a quarterfinal appearance offers 60 points. Round-of-16 results will give 30 points.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2015 – Anna Karolina Schmiedlova def. Camila Giorgi – 6-4, 6-3
2014 – Alize Cornet def. Camila Giorgi – 7-6, 5-7, 7-5
2013 – Roberta Vinci def. Petra Kvitova – 7-6, 6-1
Player Info:
While this is not a top-drawer kind of tournament, it is in Poland, which means it’s a chance for any Polish standouts to compete and advertise the sport of tennis in their home country. We’re not going to see most of the big names that we just did at the Miami Open or Indian Wells, but there should be some familiar faces.
As anyone who follows tennis is aware of, Agnieszka Radwanska is in the top five of the WTA rankings and is by far the best player Poland has produced in recent years. She will be on hand for this tournament, which will greatly please tournament organizers. The other recent winners of the tournament on hardcourts, Anna Schmiedlova and Alize Cornet, will also participate in this tournament, giving it as good a field as one could reasonably ask for under the circumstances. Radwanska went deep into Indian Wells, but she lost earlier in the Miami tournament, so she should be rested enough to make a run at the title in her native country.
Spodek Hall
The Katowice Open will be played here, in a multi-purpose facility adjacent to the International Congress Center. Spodek Hall has hosted all sorts of events, including major European sporting competitions in basketball and handball in recent years. Its exterior was renovated in 2011. The facility originally opened in 1971. Remember that this event is played on a hard surface, which benefits a specific type of player. While the men are plying their trade on the clay courts this week, the hard courts in Poland will benefit the power players. The players who have big ground strokes and big serves will do well in Poland. The clay court surface tends to slow down the ball, which neutralizes the strengths of a number of players. However, the courts at Spodek Hall use the hard surface. When you’re betting the matchups, avoid the players that rely on speed and defense, and look for the players that thrive thanks to their power hitting as they’ll do better here.
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