The WTA 250 Cleveland Open entry list has been revealed. The tournament will have its fifth edition this year on indoor hardcourts from August 18-24, in the week before the start of the US Open. Several stars will be looking to get into a good rhythm before the last Grand Slam of the year.
The absence of the Tour's stellar names will give a good chance for different names to shine in a draw led by Russia's Liudmila Samsonova and Denmark's
Clara Tauson, the only two top-20 players who will be present in the draw. The tournament will crown a new champion in the absence of McCartney Kessler, who was crowned in 2024 after beating Beatriz Haddad Maia in the final, who is also absent on this occasion.
It will be an opportunity to shine for several young stars, with seven of the top 10 seeded players being 23 years old or younger. Australian Maya Joint, Brit
Sonay Kartal, and Frenchwoman
Lois Boisson are part of the young names who are slowly gaining experience in WTA-level tournaments and getting used to their spots as top-50 players, in order to compete more regularly in WTA 250 tournaments. It's a good chance for deep runs and to earn points for some who are just getting their first experiences at the top level.
Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska and American Peyton Stearns will be two names to consider within the draw, both as two of the great talents the tournament has and with more experience in this type of tournament. Cleveland will have a particularly open draw, and outside of the favoritism of Tauson and Samsonova, everything seems to be open for anyone.
Tauson and Samsonova the favorites
The clear favorite will probably be the Dane Clara Tauson, who has had an extraordinary campaign at the Canadian Open. The 22-year-old has already reached the quarterfinals in Montreal—eliminating Iga Swiatek along the way—and continues to have a remarkable year with a 28-15 record, a title won in Auckland, and her first WTA 1000 final at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Although her ranking is No. 17, she is currently No. 11 in the Race and is in full contention to finish the year inside the top 10.
Samsonova has 10 wins in her last 15 appearances—she reached her first Wimbledon quarterfinals, where she was eliminated by the eventual champion Iga Swiatek—and has a respectable 24-16 record for the season. The Russian has become a tough opponent on the Tour, with four wins against top-10 players so far this season and an enviable consistency, making her a regular in the final rounds. She was recently eliminated by Naomi Osaka in the first round of the Canadian Open, wasting a couple of match points in her favor, but Samsonova's level is a name to consider in the American hardcourt swing.
Boisson and Kartal leading a talented young field
The French star Lois Boisson has quickly made a name for herself on the Tour in recent months after reaching the French Open semifinals from the qualifying rounds and recently winning the Hamburg Open, her first WTA-level trophy. The 22-year-old Frenchwoman has made a notable jump in the rankings, going from outside the top 500 to the top 50 in just a couple of months. She still needs to prove she can translate her great results on clay to hardcourts, and this will be a good opportunity to get in rhythm for the US Open, where she is getting her first direct entry into a Grand Slam main draw.
Sonay Kartal is another player who has raised her level this year, entering the top 50 for the first time and with a remarkable campaign at Wimbledon, where she reached the Round of 16, defeating Jelena Ostapenko along the way. Kartal was briefly the British No. 1 after the third Grand Slam of the year and remains in a close battle with Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter to be the No. 1.
Eva Lys (23 years old), Polina Kudermetova (22 years old), and Elina Avanesyan (22 years old) are other names that have gained experience this past season and will have a chance in Cleveland to show how much more they can grow in the rankings and in their level. However, the youngest will be Maya Joint (19 years old), an Australian who has quietly already won her first two titles this year, precisely by taking advantage of the weeks before the previous Grand Slams: she won Rabat the week before Roland Garros and then Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon. A draw without superstars has been especially beneficial for Joint this season.
Entry List WTA Cleveland 2025
- Liudmila Samsonova (No.16/RUS)
- Clara Tauson (No.19/DEN)
- Dayana Yastremska (No.35/UKR)
- Peyton Stearns (No.37/USA)
- Xinyu Wang (No.38/CHN)
- Anastasia Potapova (No.44/RUS)
- Maya Joint (No.45/AUS)
- Lois Boisson (No.47/FRA)
- Sonay Kartal (No.48/GBR)
- Hailey Baptiste (No.50/USA)
- Laura Siegemund (No.54/GER)
- Caroline Dolehide (No.55/USA)
- Polina Kudermetova (No.56/RUS)
- Elena-Gabriela Ruse (No.58/ROU)
- Ann Li (No.59/USA)
- Suzan Lamens (No.64/NED)
- Elina Avanesyan (No.67/ARM)
- Eva Lys (No.69/GER)
- Solana Sierra (No.70/ARG)
- Lin Zhu (No.493/CHN) PR 50
- Anastasija Sevastova (No.386/LAT) PR 72