2025 Austria Open Linz WTA Draw With Muchova, Svitolina, Sakkari
News
The 2025 Austria Open Linz is the first post-Australian Open WTA 500 event, and the draw for the tournament has now been released.
Previously, the tournament in Linz, also called the Upper Austria Ladies Linz, was a WTA 250 tournament. However, in 2024, it was promoted to a WTA 500 event, and it retained its status also in 2025.
The tournament will run from January 27th until February 2nd, and it's one of the three Tour-level tournaments running right after the Australian Open. One of them is an ATP event, the Montpellier Open, and the other one is the WTA's Singapore Open.
Last year, Jelena Ostapenko won the title in Linz, but she won't play this year. That means the draw for this WTA 500 tournament is without a defending champion. Still, the field in Linz is very strong.
Karolina Muchova, who is the 2023 French Open finalist, accepted a wild card, and she will be a top seed. At the recently concluded Australian Open, the Czech player lost already in the second round to Naomi Osaka.
She will want to avoid the same result in Linz. In the Austrian city, Muchova will be one of the top favorites, and she will be helped by a first-round bye as one of the top four seeds. In the second round, she will play against either Lulu Sun or a qualifier.
Elina Svitolina had a good run in Melbourne, reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament. She lost to the eventual champion Madison Keys, and despite making a relatively deep run at the Australian Open, the Ukrainian player has decided to play in Linz.
She will be the second seed, and like the top-seeded Muchova, her second-round opponent could be a qualifier. In Svitolina's case, the other player, who will play against the qualifier in the first round, is Anna Blinkova.
Maria Sakkari will be the third seed in Linz. The Greek player has been struggling to find her top form for quite some time, and she will want to use the WTA 500 tournament in Austria to build some confidence and return to the top.
The third-seeded Greek player will await the winner of the match between Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and Viktoriya Tomova in the second round of this event.
The fifth-seeded Dayana Yastremska might be one of the dark horses in Linz. Although she's seeded fifth, she wouldn't be anywhere near the seeding spots if the draw was made on Monday.
The reason is her upcoming drop in the WTA Rankings. In 2024, she played in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, and since she failed to repeat that result this year, she will drop out of the Top 70.
Because of that, the Ukrainian player might be motivated to record a good result in Linz and recover her lost positions. Her first-round opponent will be Lucia Bronzetti.
One player who will be on the lookout for a possible opponent change is the seventh-seeded Elina Avanesyan. She is set to play against Katerina Siniakova, who is the doubles WTA World No. 1 player.
But since Siniakova played and won the doubles final at the Australian Open only on Sunday, it might be challenging for the Czech player to make it to Linz so quickly, and she might be forced to withdraw from the event.
2025 Austria Open Linz WTA Draw:
| Player 1 | Player 2 |
| Karolina Muchova [1 WC] | BYE |
| Lulu Sun | [Qualifier] |
| Rebecca Sramkova | Elisabetta Cocciaretto |
| Julia Grabher [WC] | Anastasia Potapova [6] |
| Ekaterina Alexandrova [4] | BYE |
| [Qualifier] | [Qualifier] |
| Eva Lys [WC] | [Qualifier] |
| Katerina Siniakova | Elina Avanesyan [7] |
| Dayana Yastremska [5] | Lucia Bronzetti |
| Mayar Sherif | [Qualifier] |
| Viktoriya Tomova | Jessica Bouzas Maneiro |
| BYE | Maria Sakkari [3] |
| Clara Tauson [8] | Anhelina Kalinina |
| Sorana Cirstea | Arantxa Rus |
| [Qualifier] | Anna Blinkova |
| BYE | Elina Svitolina [2] |
