WTA Quebec City Preview

Kirsten Flikpens aims for second straight title in Canada

After last year’s win, Kirsten Flikens returns to Quebec in search of her second career title. The 27 years old loves to play in fast surfaces and she proved that this season at Wimbledon reaching semi-finals. Flipkens considers herself an all court player: “I am an all court player. I like to do everything a bit. I would say my serve and all round game is my strength”.  Last year she defeated Dominika Cibulkova, Mirjana Lucic, Anna Tatishvili, Mona Barthel and Lucie Hradecka to get the title. With this year’s performance at Wimbledon, the Belgian climbed on WTA ranking and is the first seed in Quebec. 

The third seed Lucie Safarova is always a dangerous player, the 2009 finalist possesses a high top spin forehand and capable of hitting clear winners with her powerful groundstrokes. The Czech is not having a good momentum and only got one victory in her last six games, however Safarova isn’t a player known for her consistency and can pull off a perfect week with her powerful tennis.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands is the fifth seed and returns to Quebec after a two years absence. In her last appearance Mattek-Sands reached the final losing against Tamira Paszek in three tough sets. The American was also finalist in 2008 and has a 10 – 3 record at this competition.  The World No. 46 is known for her unique style and outfits and is able to produce very good tennis in Indoor Hard Court with powerful strokes and tremendous skills around the net.

The other player to keep an eye during the competition is the Canadian’s number one Eugenie Bouchard. After last year’s second round loss against Lucie Hradecka in a very close match where the Czech won in a third set tie break, the young Canadian is determined to improve her game level and claim her first career title. Bouchard’s aggressiveness with powerful groundstrokes and good baseline movement makes her a very good player in these conditions and with the support of Canadian crowd she can go far in this tournament.

In the main draw there are other two players who can produce very good tennis on Indoor, I’m talking about Lucie Hradecka (2012 finalist) and Tamira Paszek (2010 champion).

The first round starts today with the following games:

Christina McHale vs Tamira Paszek

Mallory Burdette vs Marina Erakovic

Ajla Tomljanovic vs Maria Sanchez

Aleksandra Wozniak vs Caroline Garcia