The Pierre Sauvaigo Sports Park in Cagnes-sur-Mer is hosting, from May 5th to 13th, the 15th GDF SUEZ Open on clay.
32 players ranked among the world’s best will be present from Monday, the tournament’s first round. On Sunday, the qualifications of a 32-player draw also conclude, with 4 qualifying for the main draw. 16 doubles teams are also present.
The tournament draw took place in the presence of former French champion Camille Pin. The draw is quite balanced and promises a thrilling first-round match between French player Aravane Rezaรฏ, who received a wild card, and Japanese player Ayumi Morita.
3 players from the French Fed Cup team have already played on the clay courts of the US Cagnes tennis: Tatiana Golovin, Emilie Loit (winner of the Cagnes Open in 2002), and Sรจverine Bremond (winner in 2004). In 2005, 15-year-old Alizรฉ Cornet from Nice, then ranked 1024th in the world, received an invitation to participate in the main draw and four years later reached the 11th world ranking.
This open is established as a genuine support for the development of women’s tennis and continues its growth with a prize fund of $100,000 and 150 points, while in 1998, during the first edition, the winner took home only $10,000. It becomes the first ITF circuit tournament to offer this prize fund and positions itself as the 4th major women’s tennis event in France, after Roland-Garros with $9,938,926, the Paris GDF SUEZ Open with $637,000, and the Internationaux de Strasbourg with $220,000.
