France’s Oceane Dodin, ranked 112th in the world, will be the No. 1 seed. Nadine Arbaizar from Vitoria will be the local representative.
The 4th edition of the international tournament ARABA World Tennis Tour FEMENINO- Open Grupo Amutio counts the days for its beginning, next July 16th. In this edition it takes a qualitative leap by becoming an ITF $100,000. a higher rank that again places the event as the best in Euskadi and one of the best in Spain.
After those held in 2019, 2021 and 2022, it goes up one more step, which certifies an important bet by the Peña Vitoria Tennis Club to consolidate this event that will turn Vitoria-Gasteiz into the world center of tennis between July 16 and 23.
The profile of players who will attend the capital of Alava will be high, from the number 100 in the women’s world ranking. A total of 95 between the singles and doubles tournaments. In addition, this tournament is held a week after Wimbledon, which closes the season on grass and will be the first on hard surface, an attraction for many players who have their sights set on the US Open.
Among the notable names, France’s Oceane Dodin, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, 112th in the WTA rankings who was as high as 46th in 2017. Another of the renowned players is the Bulgarian Sesil Karatantchev, who reached the 35th in the world., the Serbian Aleksandra Krunic, current number 211 who reached the 35th position, the English Heather Watson current 149 who in 2015 was the 38th or the Bulgarian Jaqueline Adina who in January 2022 reached the 58th position. As for the Spanish participation Marina Bassols will be the number 4 seed of the tournament, component of the senior Spanish team and who is ranked 131st in the ranking. Last year’s winner, the French Jessika Ponchet, will compete again and will start as number 3 seed. In the final phase, the players coming to Vitoria are professional tennis players who have been in the top 50 of the WTA ranking and who have played in the final rounds of Grand Slam tournaments in their careers.
It should also be noted the presence in the preliminary phase of Alexandra Eala, the young Filipino tennis player who was junior champion of the US Open in 2022 and who reached the semifinals of the Vitoria tournament last year, a promising world tennis player with a scholarship from the Rafa Nadal Academy. As for the local presence, Nadine Arbaizar from Vitoria, champion of Euskadi and runner-up in the Isa del Campo tournament, through an invitation from the Basque Tennis Federation, will be able to take part in this edition. Mercedes Aristegui from Biscay will also take part.
About 95 players will compete both in singles and doubles category will come to Vitoria. In addition, there will be a ratio of 3.5 people per player, which means that more than 500 people will stay overnight in Vitoria with a high hotel occupancy and an important economic impact for the city and the province of Alava.
In addition to the purely competitive, the event will have numerous parallel activities such as Tennis Street to be held on July 14 in the Plaza de la Provincia, which will put the finishing touch to the nearly 20 sessions that have been held in schools in Vitoria, a clinic at the Fundación Estadio on Saturday 15, with the support of Fundación Vital Fundazioa, as well as the wheelchair tennis exhibition on the 23rd, before the individual final.
The quarterfinals, semifinals and the individual final will be broadcast live on Movistar +.
It is important to note that this is a self-sufficient tournament, that is, organized, coordinated and devised by the Peña Vitoriana Tenis Club, which over the years has made a great effort in the training of national line judges and referees who are part of the structure of the entity itself.
This edition has the institutional support of the Provincial Council of Alava, the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz and the private sponsorship of the Amutio Group.