All eyes will be on the second tournament of WTA’s restart after five months of inactivity on the tour. The Prague Open promises to be as stacked with tennis star power as the Palermo Open is this week. Like Palermo, this is the lowest tier of the WTA, but one would not notice given how many top 20 players are entering. The list includes Simona Halep (#2), Petra Martic (#15), Elena Rybakina (#17), Marketa Vondoursova (#18), and Maria Sakkari (#20). Unfortunately, Bencic (#8), decided to withdraw due to health concerns.

The points and prize money will mirror Palermo with approximately $200,000 in prize money. There will be a 32 person draw and the tournament will be held from August 10th to August 16th. Let’s look at some of the favorites and dark horses for this tournament.

Simona Halep (#2): Let’s hope Simona doesn’t have to pull out from the Prague Open like she did in Palermo. Halep will be the top seed in Prague and the heavy favorite. She’s a former French Open champ, as well as two-time Madrid Champ. Clay is her go to surface. This will be her first tournament since the restart of the tour. Expect her to be a bit rusty, but still go deep into the draw.

Marketa Vondrousova (#18): Vondrousova will be coming from Palermo with some good match experience. On clay she can beat anybody and showed her skills by reaching the final of the French Open in 2019. She’s had some injury woes but has been playing exhibitions and looking good.

Donna Vekic (#24): Another player that always shows up and has made steady progress in the last few years. She’s more of a power player though, and she has her best results on hard courts. Nevertheless, she’s comfortable on the clay and can fight her way to the semis or finals.

Dayana Yastremska (#25): A gritty player, she’s one of our favorites to do well in Palermo and will also be a favorite in Prague. She’s itching to get some competitive matches as she looks to the US Open and French Open in quick succession.

Dark Horses

Jelena Ostapenko (#41): She’s a former Grand Slam champion. What else can we say about Ostapenko? Although she has had mixed results in the last couple of years, she’s a threat on clay, and she’ll be looking to get back on top of the tennis world as quickly as possible.

Eugenie Bouchard: her ranking is now in the hundreds, but she’s been playing some exhibitions and most recently World Team Tennis where she was a pivotal player in reaching the finals. Eugenie was given a wild card by the organizers, and there’s no reason she can’t get to at least the quarters of this tournament. That is of course if she doesn’t run into a top seed early on.

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