The 2021
Yarra Valley Classic provides the display of some of the brightest names of women's tennis, and every day the schedule of play is filled with shiny names such as
Serena Williams, Sofia Kenin, and Ashleigh Barty.
The 2021 Yarra Valley Classic showed a great level of tennis to fans all around the world ahead of the first Grand Slam of the season. Ashleigh Barty and Garbine Muguruza showed that they were the strongest players in the field and they will fight for the first title of the season.
World number 1 from Australia, Ashleigh Barty and former world number 1 from Spain, Garbine Muguruza met already 5 times on the courts. The home-crowd favorite triumphed 3 times and she will try to add another victory in Melbourne to secure her first title since Adelaide last year. On the other hand, Muguruza will try to continue in a style she played during the whole tournament when she allowed her opponents to win only 10 games in 4 matches.
Yarra Valley Classic 2021 Schedule of Play:
Sunday, February 7th:
01:00 Barty A. (Aus) - Muguruza G. (Esp)
Saturday, February 6th:
After delaying all Thursday's matches, the action returns to Melbourne Park on Friday, at all six pre-Australian Open tournaments.
It was supposed to be a spectacular Semifinals Saturday at the Yarra Valley Classic with a clash between Ashleigh Barty and Serena Williams but the American pulled out giving Barty the walkover victory and a spot in the final. So it will be only a 1-match semifinal on Saturday with the match scheduled to begin at 02:30 CET. Garbine Muguruza will take on Marketa Vondrousova for a chance to play Barty in the final.
Both enter this match in great form especially Garbine Muguruza who always enjoys a strong Australian Summer highlighted by last year's AO final appearance. En route to the semifinal here she defeated Sofia Kenin who defeated her in that final. Vondrousova won't be without chances but they are rather slim. They never played before so there is a chance for Marketa to surprise Garbine which could make things more interesting.
02:30 Vondrousova M. (Cze) - Muguruza G. (Esp)
Friday, February 5th:
The Yarra Valley Classic offers the quarter-final encounters, with prominent names seeking the semi-final berth. World no. 1 Ashleigh Barty takes upon
Shelby Rogers, seeking another victory in front of the home crowd after skipping all the action since February last year. Garbine Muguruza has been the player to beat so far this week, and she will test her skills against the Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in what should be a cracking encounter. The 23-time Major champion Serena Williams faces the fellow American
Danielle Collins, looking to continue where she left against Daria Gavrilova and Tsvetlana Pironkova. In the last match of the day, Marketa Vondrousova plays against Nadia Podoroska.
00:00 Barty A. (Aus) vs Rogers S. (Usa)
01:30 Muguruza G. (Esp) vs Kenin S. (Usa)
03:00 Collins D. R. (Usa) vs Williams S. (Usa)
04:30 Vondrousova M. (Cze) vs Podoroska N. (Arg)
Wednesday, February 3rd:
The third round at the Yarra Valley Classic brings eight interesting encounters on Wednesday. Shelby Rogers and Petra Martic open the day, followed by Marketa Vondrousova and Vera Zvonareva. World no. 1 Ashleigh Barty plays against Marie Bouzkova, hoping for another strong performance after a good start on Tuesday. The Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin takes upon the fellow American Jessica Pegula.
In one of the matches of the day, Garbine Muguruza battles against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in an encounter that could go down to the wire. Petra Kvitova plays versus Nadia Podorska, while Serena Williams sets another Tsvetlana Pironkova clash after the US Open last September. In the final match of the program,
Karolina Pliskova faces Danielle Collins.
00:30 Rogers S. (Usa) vs Martic P. (Cro)
02:00 Vondrousova M. (Cze) vs Zvonareva V. (Rus)
02:30 Barty A. (Aus) vs Bouzkova M. (Cze)
02:30 Pegula J. (Usa) vs Kenin S. (Usa)
05:00 Muguruza G. (Esp) vs Pavlyuchenkova A. (Rus)
06:30 Podoroska N. (Arg) vs Kvitova P. (Cze)
08:30 Pironkova T. (Bul) vs Williams S. (Usa)
10:00 Pliskova Ka. (Cze) vs Collins D. R. (Usa)
Tuesday, February 2nd:
It might seem that there might too much of a high-quality action at the Yarra Valley Classic on Tuesday. World number 1, Ashleigh Barty, 2020 Australian Open champion, Sofia Kenin, former world number 1 Garbine Muguruza and
Venus Williams, and also 2-time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova will be all on courts.
The day will start with a match between Camila Giorgi and Sofia Kenin. The young American will try to make an impressive start to the 2021 season to be able to later defend her title at the Australian Open.
Later, Garbine Muguruza will play against Alisson Van Uytvanck and Ashleigh Barty will take on Ana Bogdan. The day will be finished with a match between record-breaking Venus Williams who has won a match already in 28 consecutive season and she will take on Petra Kvitova who is the fourth-seeded in Melbourne.
00:30 Rogers S. (Usa) - Peterson R. (Swe)
01:00 Giorgi C. (Ita) - Kenin S. (Usa)
02:00 Pegula J. (Usa) - Barthel M. (Ger)
02:00 Podoroska N. (Arg) - Minnen G. (Bel)
03:30 Bolsova Zadoinov A. (Esp) - Bouzková M. (Cze)
03:30 Sevastova A. (Lat) - Pavlyuchenkova A. (Rus)
03:30 Zvonareva V. (Rus) - Zhang S. (Chn)
07:30 Muguruza G. (Esp) - Van Uytvanck A. (Bel)
08:30 Barty A. (Aus) - Bogdan A. (Rou)
10:00 Williams V. (Usa) - Kvitová P. (Cze)
Monday, February 1st:
On Monday, we'll see some of the top-seeded players on the courts in Melbourne. The second-round matches of the 2021 Yarra Valley Classic will start already on the second day of the event, and players such as Serena Williams,
Tsvetana Pironkova, Karolina Pliskova and Petra Martic will step onto the court.
The fifth-seeded Williams will take on Australian wild-card Daria Gavrilova in the second round. The experienced Australian defeated Viktoria Kuzmova in the first round in a very dominant way and so she can cause any harm to the 23-time Grand Slam champion.
We'll also see two Czech seeded players. First, the eight-seeded Marketa Vondrousova will play against Varvara Gracheva, and no. 3 at the Yarra Valley Classic, Karolina Pliskova will take on Elisabetta Cocciaretto. Tsvetana Pironkova will try to continue in her great come back to the tennis courts against Donna Vekic.
00:30 Burel C. (Fra) - Giorgi C. (Ita)
00:30 Danilovic O. (Srb) - Minnen G. (Bel)
01:00 Doi M. (Jpn) - Pavlyuchenkova A. (Rus)
02:00 Hsieh S-W. (Tpe) - Van Uytvanck A. (Bel)
02:00 Podoroska N. (Arg) - Jones F. (Gbr)
02:00 Zvonareva V. (Rus) - Pliskova Kr. (Cze)
03:30 Lapko V. (Blr) - Martic P. (Cro)
03:30 Stojanovic N. (Srb) - Collins D. R. (Usa)
04:00 Gavrilova D. (Aus) - Williams S. (Usa)
05:00 Vekic D. (Cro) - Pironkova T. (Bul)
05:00 Vondroušová M. (Cze) - Gracheva V. (Rus)
05:30 Pliskova Ka. (Cze) - Cocciaretto E. (Ita)
Sunday, January 31st:
Yarra Valley Classic brings 16 first-round encounters, with the multiple Major champion Venus Williams among the court's notable names. Venus plays against Arantxa Rus at the end of the day. Danielle Collins, Nina Stojanovic, Anna Bogdan, Fiona Ferro, Shelby Rogers, Anastasia Sevastova, Daria Gavrilova, Tsvetlana Pironkova and the Aussie veteran Sam Stosur will also try to reach the second round and make a perfect Melbourne start.
00:30 Bonaventure Y. (Bel) vs Collins D. R. (Usa)
00:30 Raina A. (Ind) vs Bolsova Zadoinov A. (Esp)
00:30 Sherif M. (Egy) vs Stojanovic N. (Srb)
02:00 Bogdan A. (Rou) vs Rakhimova K. (Rus)
02:00 Ferro F. (Fra) vs Rogers S. (Usa)
02:00 Sevastova A. (Lat) vs Brengle M. (Usa)
02:30 Peterson R. (Swe) vs Inglis M. (Aus)
03:30 Gracheva V. (Rus) vs Cabrera L. (Aus)
04:00 Kuzmova V. (Svk) vs Gavrilova D. (Aus)
05:00 Pironkova T. (Bul) vs Samsonova L. (Rus)
05:00 Shvedova Y. (Kaz) vs Flipkens K. (Bel)
05:30 Birrell K. (Aus) vs Barthel M. (Ger)
05:30 Stosur S. (Aus) vs Bouzkova M. (Cze)
06:30 Cocciaretto E. (Ita) vs Zhu L. (Chn)
07:00 Mladenovic K. (Fra) vs Pegula J. (Usa)
07:00 Rus A. (Ned) vs Williams V. (Usa)