It is preparation time for the clay court season in Colombia this week and five top 100 players will be there along with a number of others who are hoping to reach that milestone at some point this season. The first round has thrown out a lot of interesting matches and with a number one seed who isn't generally at her best on the clay courts, it's all to play for in Cali.
Mathilde Johansson won this event back in 2008, but might need to be a little wary as early as the first round this time.
Estrella Cabeza-Candela reached the final of her last clay court challenger in Seville at the end of last year and is very comfortable on the surface. Johansson herself hasn't had much success since she left the clay courts behind in September last year and has yet to win a match at the beginning of 2012.
The crowd will be dead against top seed
Marina Erakovic in round one as she faces the veteran Colombian,
Catalina Castano. One wouldn't expect it to be too much of an ask for Erakovic given Castano's current ranking and the fact that Erakovic did manage to win two 25K's on clay last year. Still, it will be interesting to see if the crowd and Castano can make this a hurdle for her.
Monica Puig of Puerto Rico will feel that she can cause an upset against
Mandy Minella. At only 18 years of age, Puig has had some impressive results both this year and last and will see Minella as beatable, especially after a recent win over
Sofia Arvidsson. Still, last time Mandy played a clay court match she was winning the Darmstadt challenger and she has been preparing for this since she went out of the Australian Open in round one.
Seventh seed
Alexandra Panova has a tricky first round against a former top 40 player in Karin Knapp and
Patricia Mayr-Achleitner faces another home favourite,
Mariana Duque-Marino who defeated the Austrian last year and is very difficult to beat on clay.
A favourite for the tournament might be
Alexandra Dulgheru , the second seed. Dulgheru nearly defeated
Vera Zvonareva in the Australian Open, but plays at her best on the clay. She has been in 10 ITF finals, 9 on clay and has also won the Warsaw WTA event twice. 2011 could have gone better for Dulgheru as she didn't make any finals, but she certainly has a chance in Cali to get to one early in 2012.
(1)Marina Erakovic (NZL) v (wc)Catalina Castano (COL)
Mandy Minella (LUX) v Monica Puig (PUR)
Corinna Dentoni (ITA) v Julia Cohen (USA)
(6)Eva Birnerova (CZE) v Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino (ESP)
(3)Mathilde Johansson (FRA) v Estrella Cabeza-Candela (ESP)
Sesil Karatantcheva (KAZ) v Valeria Savinykh (RUS)
Kathrin Woerle (GER) v Tetiana Luzhanska (USA)
(5)Patricia Mayr-Achleitner (AUT) v Mariana Duque-Marino (COL)
(7)Alexandra Panova (RUS) v Karin Knapp (ITA)
Q/LL v Q/LL
Edina Gallovits-Hall (ROU) v Leticia Costas-Moreira (ESP)
(4)Lourdes Dominguez-Lino (ESP) v (wc)Yuliana Lizarazo (COL)
(8)Alexandra Cadantu (ROU) v Q/LL
Petra Rampre (SLO) v (wc)Karen Castiblanco (COL)
Q/LL v Q/LL
(2)Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU) v Sharon Fichman (CAN)
PK
Photo: wikimedia.org
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