V. Williams, Vesnina, Kuznetsova, Bencic, Vinci, Pavluchenkova — they all are to compete to win the St. Petersburg women’s tournament which was upgraded to the WTA Premier status in 2016 and is experiencing growing popularity over recent years.
The players list is really impressive this year with the former World No. 1 Vinus Williams as the most popular star. She will be joined by Olympic Games 2016 champions in doubles Elena Vesnina and Catherine Makarova as well as Svetlana Kuznetzova (number 9 by the WTA), Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova (No. 5) and Romania’s Simona Halep (No. 4).
Last year the highest WTA’s ranking was held by Belinda Bencic who was No. 14 then followed by Roberta Vinci (No. 15) (the two met in final where Vinci won). That is to say that the level of the tournament has risen up since then.
And the legendary Martina Hingis who won in doubles last year is coming this year too. She’s now ranked No. 4 by the WTA.
The tournament will be held at two venues both located at the Krestovsky island:
1) Sibur Arena. Address: 8, Futbolnaya Alleya, Krestovsky island
A free shuttle bus will be working from 10.00 to 21.30 every 30 minutes from the Krestovsky ostrov subway station. From the arena departures will be every 30 minutes from 11.15 to 21.15 and every 15 minutes from 21.45 to 00.00.
2) Dynamo sport complex. Address: 44, Dynamo avenue.
Tickets start from 100 rubles to more than 2500 for final games.
Within the St. Petersburg Ladies trophy another amateur tournament will take place. It will feature prominent ice-hockey stars including Alexey Kovalev, Vladimir Malakhov, Alexey Yashin, Maxim Sushinksy, Pavel Bure and Andrey Kovalenko.