The 2016 Monterrey Open is a continuation of the series of undercard tournaments before Indian Wells and Key Biscayne, the two March hardcourt events everyone on the WTA Tour shoots for. Players want to be sure that their games are ready to be tested in two of the bigger tournaments of the year.
The competition in the 32-player main draw will begin on Monday, February 29.
Event Details
Event: Monterrey Open
Category: WTA International Level
Date: February 29 – March 6, 2016
Location: Club Sonoma – Monterrey, Mexico
With a prize money allotment of $250,000, there’s not a large purse up for grabs. That’s going to be more of a priority at future tournaments in the month of March. Ths tournament remains a point of interest because of the opportunity for match play and the sharpening of skills heading toward the conclusion of the early-year hardcourt season. A lot of players rely on hardcourt matches to bring in income, especially if they’re not as strong on clay or grass.
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 – Timea Bacsinszky def. Caroline Garcia – 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
2014 – Ana Ivanovic def. Jovana Jaksic – 6-2, 6-1
2013 – Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Angelique Kerber – 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
2012 – Timea Babos def. Alexandra Cadantu – 6-4, 6-4
2011 – Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Jelena Jankovic – 2-6, 6-2, 6-3
Player Info:
While this is but a lead-in to Indian Wells, players want to be able to shore up weaknesses – or perhaps consolidate momentum – in this event before they go to the United States in the second week of March. Sara Errani recently won the tournament in Dubai. She took advantage of a tournament in which each of the top eight seeds lost the first match they played. Nevertheless, that shouldn’t be viewed as a cheap win for Errani. She had struggled through the previous month and a half at the start of 2016. She wasn’t beating very many players at all, regardless of ranking. She definitive improved her game in Dubai, and she will now try to replicate that success in North America, with Southern California her next destination after this one.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is a player who has won this event twice in the past five years. This is a comfortable event for her, and that fact alone should give her some confidence this upcoming week in Mexico. She’s fresh off a quarterfinals appearance in the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL where she won her first two matches but fell to No. 8 seed Yanina Wickmayer. We’ll see if she’s able to bounce back at a place where she’s had plenty of previous success.
Johanna Konta surprised everyone, maybe even herself, by making the semifinals of the Australian Open last January. Konta picked up her biggest single-tournament paycheck and her biggest gain in rankings points. She doesn’t have a lot of points to defend right now, so Monterrey is but one of many opportunities for Konta, who cracked the top 30 in early February, to continue to move upward in the rankings. We’ll have to see how she responds as she’s had a few disappointing WTA results before her impressive run at the Australian Open, so a lot of people are wondering if she’s just a fluke. She lost in the Round of 32 at the Hobart International and in the Round of 32 at Shenzen, earning just under $6,000 in those two events. She won more than half a million at the Aussie Open.
Clob Sonoma
The Monterrey Open will be played at this facility, which has hosted the event since its inception in 2009. This is the eighth annual Monterrey Open, an event that is trying to find its footing on tour. Remember that this is an event played on a hard surface, which means that players that have big serves and big groundstrokes will do well here. Defensive players and clay-court specialists are better to avoid for betting purposes.
Want to give your comments about this article? You can either leave them here or you can join us on the Get More Sports Forum and talk about this article and many more! Brag about your favorite team, argue about an athlete’s performance or tell us about a game you saw. Join a new community of sports fans who live and breathe sports and sports entertainment. It’s free! Join now!
