Elena Rybakina is the top seed at this year’s Queen’s Club HSBC Championships in London. She is joined at the top half of the draw by Strasbourg finalist Victoria Mboko and Madrid Masters 1000 champion Marta Kostyuk.
WTA Queen’s Club HSBC Championships Draw Analysis
The World No. 2 starts the campaign with a bye in the first round, and there is a strong possibility of facing Maria Sakkari in the second round. Sakkari reached the quarterfinals last year in London, so she has 108 points to defend. Leylah Fernandez appears to be the likely opponent in the quarterfinal for the two-time Grand Slam winner. Fernandez will have to beat wild card Katie Boulter in the first-round before a potential meeting with either Qinwen Zheng or Jaqueline Cristian in the second-round.
19-year-old Mboko also gets a bye in the first round, where she awaits either former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova or McCartney Kessler in the second-round. If the Canadian makes it to the quarter-final, she is likely to meet Marta Kostyuk, who starts her campaign in London with a tricky encounter with 17-year old wild card Mika Stojsavljevic. If the seeds hold Mboko and Kostyuk are projected to face each other in the quarter-finals.
The bottom half of the draw will feature World No. 4 Amanda Anisimova, who is the #2 seed, French Open quarterfinalist Sorana Cirstea, and Belinda Bencic.
Anisimova starts a campaign in London in the Round of 16, where she awaits the winner between German Laura Siegemund and wild card Francesca Jones. Alexander Eala will play a qualifier in the first-round and if she makes it to the round of 16, her opponent might be Iva Jovic, who also starts a campaign in London with a qualifier.
The top section of the bottom half sees fourth seed Belinda Bencic start with a bye in the round of 32. Wild card Harriet Dart and Liudmila Samsonova will face each other to determine who plays Bencic.
Sorana Cirstea and Emma Raducanu will face qualifiers in the Round of 32 respectively. They are projected to meet in the Round of 16, which will potentially set up a quarterfinal meeting against Bencic if the seeds hold.
The qualifiers will be placed in the main draw after the qualifying rounds on Sunday.
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