The 2024 Citi Open in Washington will run from July 29th to August 4th, and the draw for the WTA 500 event has been revealed.
This year, the tournament in Washington clashes with the Olympic Games in Paris, and that means that the organizers had to work really hard to attract a strong field of players, but they managed to do just that, and probably even more.
The top seed this year is the World No. 3 player, Aryna Sabalenka, who was the highest-ranked player who opted to skip the Olympics. Like all the top four seeded players, the Belarusian starts with a first-round BYE, moving into her second-round match. She will play against either Katie Volynets or one of the qualifiers.
On the other side of the draw is the second-seeded Daria Kasatkina. The Russian will await the winner of the match between Lesia Tsurenko and Caroline Dolehide in the second round of the tournament.
Being seeded means a first-round BYE, but it can also mean a brutal second-round draw as the third-seeded Liudmila Samsonova found out. The Russian will have to challenge the winner of the match between former World No. 2, Paula Badosa and former Australian Open champion, Sofia Kenin.
Should Kenin come out as the winner of this part of the draw, fans in Washington could see a clash between two former Grand Slam champions. Emma Raducanu, who received a wild card, will start against the eighth-seeded Elise Mertens, who she beat at Wimbledon this year.
The seventh seed in Washington is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who will start against Ashlyn Krueger, and in the second round, she could play against yet another former major winner in the draw, Sloane Stephens, who will start against a qualifier.
In the top part of the draw, the three-time Grand Slam finalist, Ons Jabeur, is the fourth seed. She will await the winner of the match between Shelby Rogers and Robin Montgomery in the second round of the tournament.
One of the most exciting first-round matches will see the fifth-seeded Anna Kalinskaya clash with compatriot Anastasia Potapova, with the winner possibly taking on Marie Bouzkova, who will play against a qualifier, in the second round. The full draw for the 2024 Citi Open in Washington can be viewed below.
| Player 1 | Player 2 |
|---|---|
| Aryna Sabalenka [1] | BYE |
| Katie Volynets | Qualifier |
| Yafan Wang | Karolina Pliskova |
| Qualifier | Victoria Azarenka [6] |
| Ons Jabeur [4] | BYE |
| Shelby Rogers | Robin Montgomery (WC) |
| Qualifier | Marie Bouzkova |
| Anastasia Potapova | Anna Kalinskaya [5] |
| Elise Mertens [8] | Emma Raducanu (WC) |
| Clervie Ngounoue | Peyton Stearns |
| Paula Badosa (WC) | Sofia Kenin |
| BYE | Liudmila Samsonova [3] |
| Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova [7] | Ashlyn Krueger |
| Sloane Stephens | Qualifier |
| Lesia Tsurenko | Caroline Dolehide |
| BYE | Daria Kasatkina [2] |