Andrea Petkovic to face Svetlana Kuznetsova

Stuttgart. Andrea Petkovic was the only German to survive qualifying and win a berth in the main draw of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. The 21-year-old player from the TC Benrath club beat her team-mate Julia Schruff 6-3, 6-4 in the last round of the preliminary stage. Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria), Alberta Brianti (Italy) and Karolina Sprem (Croatia) were the other three players to get through to the main draw of the 700,000 dollar event in Stuttgart’s Porsche Arena.

In the first round of the tournament proper Andrea Petkovic will face the No. 5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia): “It’s not the easiest of matches,” said the world No. 143, “but never mind. I’ll give it my all. I’ve got nothing to lose. Having to play a qualifier is not always that easy. You can’t influence the draw. What will be, will be.” The Russian, who is 9th in the world rankings, is a regular at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. It will be her sixth appearance at the tournament and she has reached the semifinals on three occasions.

Whilst Karolina Sprem has been drawn to play a top player – Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli – in the first round of the tournament, the other two qualifiers, Alberta Brianti und Tsvetana Pironkova, have been pitted against each other.

The Belarusian Victoria Azarenka defeated Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) 6-1, 6-4 on Monday evening in the first match of the main draw.

27/04/2009