{"id":561861,"date":"2026-05-02T05:03:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/561861\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T05:03:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:03:19","slug":"sabalenka-rybakina-gauff-swiatek-eala-feature-with-doubts-over-raducanu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/561861\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka, Rybakina, Gauff, Swiatek, Eala feature with doubts over Raducanu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The second leg of the WTA clay swing triple header takes place in Rome with the Italian Open sandwiched in between the Madrid Open and the French Open.<\/p>\n<p>There were glorious scenes at Foro Italico last year when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/jasmine-paolini-wins-wta-1000-title-dominating-coco-gauff-italian-open\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jasmine Paolini defeated Coco Gauff<\/a> in the final to give Italy their first home winner in the Open since Raffaella Reggi lifted the trophy in 1985.<\/p>\n<p>And Paolini will return to defend her title, but she will only be seeded ninth with world No 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/aryna-sabalenka\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> headlining the draw.<\/p>\n<p>Besides Paolini, four other former winners will be in the main draw with Iga Swiatek winning the title in 2021, 2022 and 2024, Elena Rybakina was crowned champion in 2023, Karolina Pliskova won in 2019 and Elina Svitolina won back-to-back trophies in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n<p>How many players will feature at the Italian Open?<\/p>\n<p>The WTA 1000 tournament at Foro Italico is a 96-player singles draw event and the top 32 players in the draw are seeded and earn a bye into the second round.<\/p>\n<p>The seedings are based on the WTA Rankings of 20 April and world No 1 Sabalenka leads the way and Rybakina, Gauff,\u00a0 Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, Amanda Anisimova, Svitolina, Mirra Andreeva and Victoria Mboko complete the top 10.<\/p>\n<p>Tennis News<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-features\/italian-open-withdrawals-carlos-alcaraz-leads-list-doubts-novak-djokovic-emma-raducanu\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Italian Open withdrawals: Carlos Alcaraz leads list with doubts over Novak Djokovic and Emma Raducanu<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-features\/madrid-open-2026-aryna-sabalenka-elena-rybakina-coco-gauff-ranking-points-prize-money\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Madrid Open: What ranking points and prize money did Sabalenka, Rybakina and Gauff earn? <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Having dropped out of the top 40, Filipina youngster <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/alex-eala-rankings-breakthrough-crucial-month\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Eala<\/a> will not be seeded, but she has a chance to climb up the rankings as she lost in the first round last year.<\/p>\n<p>Eight players have earned wildcard entries with all of them from the host nation Italy, one player \u2013 Pliskova \u2013 used her protected ranking to enter the main draw, 12 will come through qualifying and 75 players gain entry via their ranking.<\/p>\n<p>Any high-profile withdrawals?<\/p>\n<p>So far, only three players have officially withdrawn from the tournament and they are world No 55 Sonay Kartal, No 60 Varvara Gracheva and No 64 Veronika Kudermetova.<\/p>\n<p>Former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova will also miss the tournament as she has been provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency.<\/p>\n<p>There are also question marks over a host of players as the likes of Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek struggled with illness during the tournament, while Madison Keys also pulled out ahead of her first match as she was also unwell.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Emma Raducanu has not played since the Indian Wells Open in March and has yet to confirm if she has recovered from her viral infection.<\/p>\n<p>What are the key dates and when will the draw take place?<\/p>\n<p>The Italian Open main draw is set for 3 May with the women\u2019s singles competition starting on 5 May with the final set for Saturday 16 May on Stadio Centrale.<\/p>\n<p>2026 Italian Open Entry List<\/p>\n<p>Seeds<br \/>1. Aryna Sabalenka<br \/>2. Elena Rybakina<br \/>3. Coco Gauff<br \/>4. Iga Swiatek<br \/>5. Jessica Pegula<br \/>6. Amanda Anisimova<br \/>7. Elina Svitolina<br \/>8. Mirra Andreeva<br \/>9. Jasmine Paolini<br \/>10. Victoria Mboko<br \/>11. Karolina Muchova<br \/>12. Belinda Bencic<br \/>13. Linda Noskova<br \/>14. Ekaterina Alexandrova<br \/>15. Naomi Osaka<br \/>16. Iva Jovic<br \/>17. Madison Keys<br \/>18. Clara Tauson<br \/>19. Diana Shnaider<br \/>20. Liudmila Samsonova<br \/>21. Elise Mertens<br \/>22. Anna Kalinskaya<br \/>23. Marta Kostyuk<br \/>24. Marie Bouzkova<br \/>25. Leylah Fernandez<br \/>26. Sorana Cirstea<br \/>27. Emma Raducanu<br \/>28. Emma Navarro<br \/>29. Maya Joint<br \/>30. Cristina Bucsa<br \/>31. Wang Xinyu<br \/>32. Hailey Baptiste<\/p>\n<p>Other entries<br \/>Jaqueline Cristian<br \/>Ann Li<br \/>Sara Bejlek<br \/>Qinwen Zheng<br \/>Maria Sakkari<br \/>Magdalena Frech<br \/>Janice Tjen<br \/>Jelena Ostapenko<br \/>Elisabetta Cocciaretto<br \/>Katerina Siniakova<br \/>Peyton Stearns<br \/>Alexandra Eala<br \/>Lois Boisson<br \/>Laura Siegemund<br \/>Mccartney Kessler<br \/>Dayana Yastremska<br \/>Jessica Bouzas Maneiro<br \/>Tereza Valentova<br \/>Barbora Krejcikova<br \/>Yulia Starodubtseva<br \/>Tatjana Maria<br \/>Anastasia Potapova<br \/>Magda Linette<br \/>Talia Gibson<br \/>Antonia Ruzic<br \/>Katie Boulter<br \/>Elsa Jacquemot<br \/>Anna Bondar<br \/>Shuai Zhang<br \/>Anastasia Zakharova<br \/>Sofia Kenin<br \/>Beatriz Haddad Maia<br \/>Oleksandra Oliynykova<br \/>Caty McNally<br \/>Daria Kasatkina<br \/>Panna Udvardy<br \/>Kamilla Rakhimova<br \/>Oksana Selekhmeteva<br \/>Yulia Putintseva<br \/>Eva Lys<br \/>Zeynep Sonmez<br \/>Petra Marcinko<br \/>Solana Sierra<\/p>\n<p>Wildcards<br \/>Nuria Brancaccio<br \/>Lucia Bronzetti<br \/>Tyra Caterina Grant<br \/>Lisa Pigato<br \/>Jennifer Ruggeri<br \/>Lucrezia Stefanini<br \/>Martina Trevisan<br \/>Wildcard<\/p>\n<p>Protected Ranking<br \/>Karolina Pliskova<\/p>\n<p>Twelve Qualifiers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The second leg of the WTA clay swing triple header takes place in Rome with the Italian Open&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-561861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}