2021 WTA season commences in Abu Dhabi

The 2021 WTA Tour officially commences on Wednesday at the Abu Dhabi WTA Women's Tennis Open, a WTA 500 event, where 2020 WTA Player of the Year Sofia Kenin will lead the field along with fellow Top 10 players Elina Svitolina, Karolina Pliskova and Aryna Sabalenka.

Joining that quartet of Top 10 players in Abu Dhabi are rising stars Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Marketa Vondrousova, as well as 2020 Roland Garros semifinalist and the WTA Newcomer of the Year Nadia Podoroska. Headlining the doubles field this week are Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka.

Some of the compelling storylines this season include:

• WTA World No.1 Ashleigh Barty and 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu will make their highly anticipated returns to the WTA Tour
• Sofia Kenin and Iga Swiatek will look to keep the momentum going into 2021 following their breakout 2020 seasons
• 2020 WTA Comeback Player of the Year Victoria Azarenka will aim to keep up the resurgence she started last year, while Kim Clijsters pursues her comeback on the WTA Tour
• Simona Halep will seek to extend her current streak of consecutive weeks in the Top 10 (currently 343 weeks, the eighth best in WTA history)
• Former WTA World No.1 Naomi Osaka, who has lifted a Grand Slam trophy in each of the last three seasons, will aim to add to the history books while being a prominent face of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo
• Serena Williams continues her quest for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title
• Reigning WTA World No.1 doubles player Hsieh Su-Wei is set to play in Abu Dhabi with former No.1 Barbora Krejcikova and will pair with Barbora Strycova for the Australian Open where the duo reached the final last year. Meanwhile, the 2019 and 2020 WTA Doubles Team of the Year Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic are set to return to Melbourne to defend their crown

The 2021 edition of the Porsche Race to Shenzhen also begins on Wednesday, starting 
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