2021 WTA Birmingham Classic Entry List including Mertens, Gauff and Konta

Tuesday, 01 June 2021 at 13:00

The Birmingham Classic is one of a number of WTA 500 tournaments which are set to take place during the pre Wimbledon grass court swing.

Joining Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne on the WTA side as well as Berlin and Bad Homburg in Germany, it is usually well attended by a host of top names.

But with bett1 Open in Berlin returning and attracting the likes of Ash Barty, Aryna Sabalenka, Bianca Andreescu, Iga Swiatek, Victoria Azarenka and various other top names the week before Eastbourne where many will also play, the top names will include Elise Mertens, Coco Gauff and Johanna Konta in Birmingham.

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Mertens is currently top seed ahead of Konta with the Brit playing most domestic grass court tournaments in the run up to Wimbledon to get game time in.

Gauff who is set for her debut at Eastbourne the week after is also set to be involved and is fourth seed behind Ons Jabeur.

While former Grand Slam champions, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Ostapenko will take in the WTA 500 tournament in their preparation.

As will Paula Badosa who has emerged on clay as of late and will like Konta play most tournaments in the UK in the run up to Wimbledon.

There is also a spot for the returning Elena Vesnina through a special protected ranking after the Russian returned to action for the first time since 2018 following her pregnancy with an opening round win at Roland Garros.

2021 Birmingham Classic Entry List (WTA)

1 MERTENS, ELISE (BEL) 15

2 KONTA, JOHANNA (GBR) 20

3 JABEUR, ONS (TUN) 25

4 GAUFF, CORI (USA) 30

5 KONTAVEIT, ANETT (EST) 31

6 PUTINTSEVA, YULIA (KAZ) 35

7 VEKIC, DONNA (CRO) 36

8 KASATKINA, DARIA (RUS) 37

9 KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA (RUS) 39

10 OSTAPENKO, JELENA (LAT) 41

11 ZHANG, SHUAI (CHN) 43