The 2024 Eastbourne International is one of the last two WTA 500 tournaments prior to Wimbledon, and the draw for the event was released.
Running from June 24th to 29th, the Eastbourne International offers the last chance for players to prepare prior to the grass-court major. Compared to some other WTA 500 events, this event generally doesn't feature the strongest field because most of the players opt to travel to London early to prepare at SW19.
Still, plenty of great players come every year because it's a great chance to fine-tune their level for Wimbledon, but this year's edition seems to be particularly strong.
Home-crowd favorite Emma Raducanu will play at the tournament in Eastbourne, where she'll start in the opening round against Sloane Stephens. Raducanu has shown a good level on grass so far, but Eastbourne International will present her with a tricky start.
Should she win, she'll play Jessica Pegula, who is the number two seed. The American hasn't played a lot recently due to her injury, so she needs matches and clearly wants them as well.
The top seed of the event is Elena Rybakina, who has won Wimbledon in the past but clearly wasn't happy with the way things went in Berlin. She was forced to abandon her plans of playing there due to sickness, but if she's fully recovered, she will likely play in Eastbourne.
Her journey will begin in the second round against either Harriet Dart or Marie Bouzkova, and neither is a very easy player to play. Some other interesting matches include Ajla Tomljanovic taking on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the opening round.
Another very interesting round-one matchup is between Leylah Fernandez and Barbora Krejcikova, but it's not the only one.
| Player | Opponent |
|---|---|
| Elena Rybakina (1) | Bye |
| Harriet Dart | Marie Bouzkova |
| Qualifier | Qualifier |
| Leylah Fernandez | Barbora Krejcikova (7) |
| Madison Keys (4) | Bye |
| Sorana Cirstea | Qualifier |
| Karolina Muchova | Qualifier |
| Ajla Tomljanovic | Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (8) |
| Jelena Ostapenko (5) | Qualifier |
| Katie Boulter | Qualifier |
| Yuriko Miyazaki | Elise Mertens |
| Bye | Jasmine Paolini (3) |
| Daria Kasatkina (6) | Xinyu Wang |
| Yue Yuan | Anastasia Potapova |
| Sloane Stephens | Emma Raducanu |
| Bye | Jessica Pegula (2) |