The 2017 Brisbane International is part of a dual-gender event in which both the WTA and ATP Tours gather during the same week in Australia to prepare for the Australian Open. The women’s event, though, has more than twice the size of the purse for the men’s event. It’s the first Premier level event of the season, a draw for a lot of the players on tour.
The competition in the 32-player main draw will begin on Sunday, January 1.
Event Details
Event: Brisbane International
Category: WTA Premier Level
Date: January 1-8, 2017
Location: Queensland Tennis Centre – Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
With a prize money allotment of nearly $1,000,000, this tournament is the first seven-figure women’s event of the year, and it happens to start of the first day of 2017. The players who play here get to sharpen their games against top competition, and they don’t have to travel too far to Melbourne for the Australian Open, which starts a week after this tournament ends.
The points structure under the WTA system is that for the women, the championship at a Premier classification means 470 points. A runner-up finish is worth 305. A semifinal result is 185 points, and a quarterfinal appearance offers 100 points. Round-of-16 results will give 55 points.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2016: Victoria Azarenka d. Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-1
2015: Maria Sharapova d. Ana Ivanovic 6-7(4-7), 6-3, 6-3
2014: Serena Williams d. Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 7-5
2013: Serena Williams d. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-1
2012: Kaia Kanepi d. Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-1
Player Info:
This time last year, Angelique Kerber slowly started to make a move. Ranked as the 10th-best player in the world at the beginning of the year, nobody saw such a rapid rise to the No. 1 spot. If anyone would’ve said she would win two majors, blast her way to the Wimbledon final, and end the year as World No. 1, that person would have been mocked. What has changed? She no longer chokes, she has grown self-confident, she takes on challenges rather than waiting for the opposition to falter, and of course that serve has come a long way.
The gutsy German reached the final round in Brisbane last year but was polished by Victoria Azarenka in straight sets. Back then, she wasn’t the best player on earth. The 2017 season though will see her carrying the World No. 1 tag.
Dominika Cibulkova is a pocket size dynamo. The Slovakian may be short in stature but never lets her undersized figure hold her back. She packs a punch. Cibulkova is small but capable of doing bigger things. She won the WTA Finals in Singapore–the biggest title of her professional career–and galloped to a career-high No. 5 in the rankings. Now, with newly gained confidence, she could be headed for more career highs.
Karolina Pliskova fought hard but lost a close final to Angelique Kerber at the U.S. Open. Pliskova displayed nerves to beat Venus Williams in the quarterfinals and power to outlast Serena Williams in the semifinals. She became only the eighth woman to beat the Williams sisters at the same tournament and only the fourth at a Grand Slam. In her short career, the Czech youngster has showed a lot of promise but hasn’t joined hands with consistency. Pliskova is sixth in the rankings and is set for more glory in 2017. The draw in Brisbane isn’t going to be a cakewalk and it’ll be a solid early test of her mettle before she gears up for the Australian Open.
The victory at Roland Garros became too much to digest for Garbine Muguruza. The bubbly Spaniard struggled to create two wins in a row throughout the year. She unexpectedly failed to get past the second round at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Call it an emotional high, call it overconfidence, or perhaps an expectation to deliver every single time may have caused the downfall. Muguruza began the year ranked third in the world but her inconsistency caused her ranking to slide to number seven.
The French Open champion comes to Brisbane with zero ranking points to defend and with a point to prove that she can regain focus.
Svetlana Kuznetsova played her best tennis when her back was firmly against the wall, winning a tour-leading 22 three-setters in 2016. She narrowly lost in the Singapore semfinals to eventual champion Cibulkova, but still finished the year at No. 9–her highest year-end ranking in seven years. Kuznetsova could only win two titles, but she knows how close she was in Miami and Singapore. If she can take her newfound confidence into the 2017 season, the top contenders will feel the heat.
Queensland Tennis Centre
The facility, built in 2009, is highly modern, with a lightweight roof which provides easy opening and closure while reducing original building costs. The overall tennis complex contains 23 courts. The stadium court with the roof has a total seating capacity of 7,000 – 5,500 fixed seats with an allowance for 1,500 mobile and temporary seats.
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