The 2017 Apia International tennis tournament is the Sydney tour stop for the WTA. This is one of the oldest non-major tournaments in the world, dating back to the late 19th century. It has become a fixture of the Australian sporting scene and a natural warm-up event before the Australian Open in Melbourne, later in the month of January. We’re going to see some big names in the field, including world No. 1 Angelique Kerber. There is a lot of hype surrounding her these days as some people view her as the face of women’s tennis these days. It’s been a long time since we’ve said that about someone on the women’s side and not been referring to one of the Williams’ sisters or even Maria Sharapova. This event won’t define Kerber, but it will give us an early look as to whether those compliments are legitimate or whether it’s just a bit of conjecture. After all, the women’s side of things has been very diverse in terms of “flavors of the moment” and consistency has been hard to find outside of Serena.
The competition in the 32-player main draw will begin on Sunday, January 8.
Event Details
Event: WTA Apia International
Category: WTA Premier Level
Date: January 8-14, 2017
Location: NSW Tennis Centre – Sydney, Australia
With a prize money allotment of nearly $731,000, this event carries a substantial purse given the 32-player field. It’s a very early season warm-up event which rises above the international tier, so it’s valuable for players to enter not just for the sake of practice, but for rankings points and prize money. Still, the prize money is decent here, so there is ample incentive for the players to fight for a pay check.
Points allotment:
Championship – 470 points.
Runner-up – 305
Semifinal – 185
Quarterfinal – 100
Round of 16 – 55 points.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2016: Svetlana Kuznetsova d. Monica Puig, 6-0, 6-2
2015: Petra Kvitova d. Karolina Pliskova, 7-6, 7-6
2014: Tsvetana Pironkova d. Angelique Kerber, 6-4, 6-4
2013: Agnieszka Radwanska d. Dominika Cibulkova, 6-0, 6-0
2012: Victoria Azarenka d. Li Na, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3
Player Info:
This is as good a field as you’ll ever see for an event held the week before a major tournament. Before the French Open, the WTA usually winds down, but because players are just starting the season, they’re happy to play just days before the Australian Open, without an off week.
All eight of the seeds at this tournament are ranked in the top 15 of the WTA: Angelique Kerber is the World No. 1 and the top seed. Agnieszka Radwanska is third in the world. She’s the second seed in Sydney. Dominika Cibulkova is the fifth-ranked player in the world, good enough for the third seed. Karolina Pliskova, ranked sixth in the world after her U.S. Open runner-up finish, is the fourth seed.
Kerber is the player in the spotlight after she won two major tournaments last year and rocketed from relative obscurity to the center of the women’s tennis world. How she handles pressure this year will be frontally on display in Melbourne, but Sydney should give her a first good test of her form and toughness.
Radwanska has never won a major tournament and is therefore in a position where she wants to fine-tune her game so that it’s ready to go when the Australian Open begins.
Cibulkova won the year-ending WTA Finals and will try to carry that momentum into the Australian summer in the month of January.
Pliskova caught fire in August of last year. Now comes the challenge of being good throughout a full season, something she hasn’t done yet on tour. This is the type of event that could be a big stepping stone for her. If she’s truly a player on the rise, she’ll start by making her name at events like this.
NSW Tennis Centre
The host site for Sydney’s venerable tennis tournament has a main stadium court with a capacity of 10,000 seats. The tennis complex also has second and third show courts with seating capacities of 4,000 and 2,000 people. It’s a fan-friendly venue which can sufficiently host this dual-gender event. Both the WTA and ATP Tours come to Sydney for this tennis festival.
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