Eleven of the world’s Top 20 players will face off for the prestigious WTA 500 indoor-clay title at the Porsche-Arena in Stuttgart, kicking off the European clay-court swing on Monday.
The singles champion will receive €142,610 and 500 ranking points, as well as one of the most coveted prizes on tour, a Porsche Macan Turbo.
The Top 4 seeds, who are also the top four players in the PIF WTA Rankings, receive 1st-round byes.
World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who heads the draw, is seeking her first Stuttgart title, having been the runner-up between 2021 and 2023.
After her bye, Sabalenka will face either Russia’s Anastasia Potapova or Clara Tauson from Denmark in the 2nd round, and, if seedings hold, the Belarusian would face another Russian, No 8 seed Diana Shnaider, in the quarter-finals.
Iga Swiatek, the No 2 seed, sits at the bottom of the draw with a 10-1 lifetime winning record in Stuttgart, having lifted the trophy here in 2022 and 2023 before her perfect record was snapped by Elena Rybakina in last year’s semi-finals.
If the Pole makes the quarter-finals, she could face 7th-seeded Emma Navarro, but former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko also lurks in this quarter, and the Latvian holds a 5-0 record against the former World No 1.
Coco Gauff, the 4th seed, leads the second quarter and will face a German in the 2nd round in either wildcard Tatjana Maria or lucky loser Ella Seidel, who replaces Danielle Collins after the American withdrew due to illness.
In fact, all 5 Germans in the draw have landed in this quarter.
World No 5 Jasmine Paolini from Italy is at the other end of the section, and she will face a home wildcard in her first two matches, with 2017 champion Laura Siegemund potentially coming in the 2nd round.
If the seedings hold, the third quarter of the draw could see a quarter-final clash between two of this year’s winningest players, No 3 seed Jessica Pegula and No 6 seed Mirra Andreeva.
The American comes into Stuttgart having just captured this season’s first clay-court WTA 500 title at Charleston and leads the Hologic WTA Tour in main-draw match-wins this year, with 25.
Russia’s 17-year-old Andreeva, though, is not too far behind in wins, having already won 20 matches this season, bolstered by back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells.
Notably absent from Stuttgart is Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng, the World No 8 from China, who withdrew from the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix last week.
World No 9 Paula Badosa also pulled out of the tournament due to chronic back pain that forced her to withdraw from the Miami Open in March, as well as the Charleston Open, and she is replaced by Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.
Also out are Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur and Barbora Krejcikova from Czechia, with continuing leg and back injuries, respectively.
Jabeur retired against Paolini in the 3rd round of the Miami Open with the problem, and Krejcikova has not played since reaching the semi-finals of the season-ending WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF last October.
Reigning champion, Rybakina, defeated Kostyuk, 6-2 6-2, in the 2024 final, but the Kazakh is also absent from this season’s event and will not defend her title.
The main draw for the singles event features 28 singles players, with 4 participants coming from wild-cards and another 4 players from qualifying.
Main-draw action in the 47th edition of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix begins on Monday, and concludes with a Monday singles final on 21 April, as there will be no play on Friday, 18 April, due to the Good Friday holiday.
