US 15-year-old tennis sensation Coco Gauff will start her 2020 season at the ASB Classic in Auckland joining a strong line-up, which also features former Grand Slam champions Caroline Woniacki, Jelena Ostapenko, Serena and Venus Williams, Jelena Ostapenko and Svetlana Kuznetsova and double defending champion Julia Goerges, reigning US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and this year’s Roland Garros semifinalist Amanda Anisimova.
The line-up of the 2020 edition of the Auckland tournament will be a mix of youth and experience. Williams, Kuznetsova, Wozniacki and Goerges have collected a total of 127 titles between them.
Serena Williams won 23 Grand Slam titles and clinched 72 WTA titles. This year the US legend reached two finals at Wimbledon and at the US Open.
In last year’s edition of the Auckland tournament Andreescu came through the qualifying round before beating world number one players Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki en route to reaching her first WTA Final. Andreescu went on to win three titles at Indian Wells, Toronto and the US Open. One year ago the Canadian player of Romanian origin was ranked world number 178 and is now sitting at world number 5 in the WTA Ranking.
Gauff became the youngest player to qualify for the main draw at Wimbledon last summer and went on to reach the main draw before losing to Simona Halep. Gauff reached the third round at the US Open and won her first WTA title in Linz after beating World number 8 Kiki Bertens along the route.
Organisers of the Auckland tournament also confirmed that 18-year-old rising star Amanda Anisimova will take take part at this event from 6th to 12th January 2020.
The line-up is completed by Petra Martic and Cici Bellis. Martic has reached her career high ranking of 15 after winning her first WTA title in Istanbul. The Croatian player has reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and at the US Open and the final in Zhengzhou.
Bellis is coming back from an injury. The US player was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year at the age of 18. She reached the semifinal of the Oracle 125 tournament in Houston.
“This is clearly the best field we have ever had ever in Auckland. It will be the first time we have had two top 10 players, when you add in three further Grand Slam winners, double defending champion Julia Goerges, and two prospects on the WTA Tour Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova”, said tournament director Karl Budge.
