Former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu has accepted a qualifying wild card for the upcoming San Diego Open WTA 500 slated for Saturday, Oct. 8 through Sunday, Oct. 16 at Barnes Tennis Center, 4490 W Point Loma Blvd.
Andreescu, a 22-year-old native of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, captured the 2019 US Open singles title at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center after winning seven consecutive matches including a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Serena Williams in the final.
The talented Canadian owns three career WTA singles titles and reached a career-high No. 4 in the WTA singles rankings in October 2019. This past June, Andreescu reached the final of the $251,750 WTA event in Bad Homburg, Germany, where she fell to Caroline Garcia of France, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4.
Andreescu, who finished in the Top Ten in 2019 and 2020, is currently ranked No. 57 in the world.
“We are thrilled to have a former US Open champion like Bianca Andreescu in our qualifying tournament,” said tournament director Ryan Redondo. “The depth of our player field for this inaugural event is pretty amazing and fans are going to have a great time watching some incredible match-ups beginning with qualifying this Saturday all the way through the finals on Sunday, Oct. 16.”
Qualifying Rounds, scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8 and Sunday, Oct. 9, will begin at 10 a.m. each day. The tournament schedule for main draw matches on Monday, Oct. 10 through Friday, Oct. 14, will feature Day Sessions beginning at 11:30 a.m., and Night Sessions getting underway at 5:30 p.m.
The tournament schedule on Saturday, Oct. 15 will feature singles and doubles semifinals during a Day Session only beginning at noon. On Sunday, Oct. 16, the doubles championship will be played at 1:30 p.m., followed by the singles championship at 4 p.m.
Reigning US Open champion Iga Swiatek of Poland headlines the Hologic WTA Tour event, which will feature seven of the Top 10 and 16 of the Top 20 players in women’s professional tennis, including Americans Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins, Sofia Kenin, and Madison Keys, along with Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic. To view the current tournament player field, click here.
Tickets for the inaugural San Diego Open WTA 500 can be purchased at https://barnessdopen.com/tickets-2.
The tournament will offer $757,000 in prize money and will have a 32-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw. A 24-player qualifying draw will also be played with six qualifiers advancing to the main draw.
The San Diego Open WTA 500 Tournament marks the return of the WTA to San Diego County, which has a rich history of hosting top-level women’s tennis events dating back to 1971. The most recent WTA tournament was played in Carlsbad in 2015.
WTA Grand Slam champions who have won titles in San Diego include Billie Jean King, Tracy Austin, Steffi Graf, Jennifer Capriati, Conchita Martínez, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Mary Pierce, Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Samantha Stosur.
