WTA Draw 2023 Pan Pacific Open including Swiatek, Sakkari, and Pegula

Tuesday, 26 September 2023 at 01:26

The WTA Draw for the 2023 Toray Pan Pacific Open held in Tokyo, Japan has been released, with the WTA 500 tournament set to take place from September 25 - October 1.

Twenty-eight players will feature in the main draw and the line-up this year is stacked with top-ranked players. Heading up the draw is World No. 2 Iga Swiatek, who has already shared clips of her training in Tokyo in preparation for the event.

As the tournament's top seed, the 22-year-old will receive a bye in the first round and will play either home player and World No. 92 Nao Hibino or a qualifier in her opening match.

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Potential for Swiatek-Rybakina clash

The draw offers the potential for a clash between Swiatek and World No. 4 Elena Rybakina, who is the tournament's third seed. The players have met four times before, with the Kazakhstani player leading their head-to-head 3-1.

Each of Rybakina's victories against the four-time Grand Slam champion have occurred this year, with Swiatek's one win being achieved in their first meeting at the 2021 Ostrava Open. However, in order to set up a fifth match against Swiatek, the 24-year-old will have to get past her opening round against Linda Noskova, as well as potential meetings with Donna Vekic and Liudmila Samsonova.

Meanwhile, second seed Jessica Pegula will be kicking off her campaign at the Pan Pacific Open against Cristina Bucsa or a qualifier. The American will potentially face sixth seed Daria Kasatkina in the last 8 at the tournament. This match will look increasingly likely if the latter gets past Marta Kostyuk in the first round, with the Ukrainian currently leading their head-to-head 2-1.

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Sakkari and Garcia to receive performance byes

The WTA is also trialing performance byes at the tournament, which they describe as "the type of bye awarded to a player based on her previous week's performance as determined by the WTA when approving the calendar and draw sizes."

These will go to fourth and fifth seeds Maria Sakkari and Caroline Garcia. Both players have had a difficult season but appear to be on the rise again after they reached the semi-finals of the Guadalajara Open AKRON in Mexico this week, with the Greek player progressing through to the final.

Garcia will face either Anhelina Kalinina or Ashlyn Krueger in her opening match, while Sakkari will play against either Petra Martic or a qualifier. If their success continues at this event, they will clash once again in the quarter-finals.