Many were waiting for this moment: Jasmine Paolini’s return to the field. The Tuscan, after the final at Roland Garros, had decided to skip the WTA 500 in Berlin to go directly to the one in Eastbourne, a historic event on the circuit. She does this already knowing that she will be seeded in the top 8 at Wimbledon, which can save her a lot of the hassles that, in the initial rounds, the name of Petra Kvitova had twice assumed.
This time the bye arrives in the first round for the number 7 in the world, but in the second the potential danger is around the corner and it’s called Elise Mertens. The Belgian, although never scoring on grass, boasts two round of 16 matches at Wimbledon and is ahead 4-1 with Paolini in previous matches (the latest being 6-3 6-0 in the Monastir final less than a year ago). Clearly today the music has changed, but Jasmine’s area of the scoreboard is full of dangers: from the unpredictable Latvian Jelena Ostapenko to Katie Boulter who is making the hosts curious.
ATP Eastbourne 2024 draw: appearances of Sonego and Cobolli, Fritz and Paul in the last before Wimbledon
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In theory, he is in charge of the board Elena Rybakinabut the Kazakh came out of Berlin with fatigue that caused her to withdraw in the quarter-finals, and this is why there is still no real certainty of being able to see her at her best.
If anything, a notable point of interest is the return of Karolina Muchova. The Czech, who had posted a great 2023 especially from the Roland Garros final onwards, had not played since the semi-finals of the US Open due to ongoing wrist problems with related surgery. She will use the protected ranking at Eastbourne, Wimbledon and the Olympics.
WTA 500 EASTBOURNE 2024 SCOREBOARD
Rybakina (KAZ) [1]-Bye
Dart (GBR) [WC]-Bouzkova (CZE)
Qualified-Qualified
Fernandez (CAN)-Krejcikova (CZE) [7]
Keys (USA) [4]-Bye
Cirstea (ROU)-Qualified
Muchova (CZE) [PR]-Qualified
Tomljanovic (AUS)-Pavlyuchenkova [8]
Ostapenko (LAT) [5]-Qualified
Boulter (GBR)-Qualified
Miyazaki (GBR) [WC]-Mertens (BEL)
Bye-Paolini (ITA) [3]
Kasatkina [6]-Xinyu Wang (CHN)
Yuan (CHN)-Potapova
Stephens (USA)-Raducanu (GBR) [WC]
Bye-Pegula (USA) [2]
