Sabalenka, Rybakina, Gauff lead stacked Berlin field

Nine of the Top 10 players in the PIF WTA Rankings will be in Germany for next month's Vanda Pharmaceuticals Berlin Tennis Open.

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka headlines the 28-player singles field, and she'll be joined by Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Amanda Anisomova, Elina Svitolina, Mirra Andreeva, Victoria Mboko and Karolina Muchova.

The only Top 10 player not in the field is Iga Swiatek.

Rounding out the draw are Top 20 players Belinda Bencic, Linda Noskova, Jasmine Paolini, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Sorana Cirstea, Madison Keys and Liudmila Samsonova. World No. 21 Clara Tauson is the final direct entrant.

In addition to the 17 direct entrants, there is also a special exempt spot, six qualifying spots and four wild cards. Eva Lys has received one of the wild cards, and the other three have yet to be announced.

The draw will be announced on Saturday, June 13, and first-round singles play at the Rot-Weiss Tennis Club will begin on Monday, June 15. The tournament will run through Sunday, June 21.

Marketa Vondrousova, not in this year's field, is the defending champion in Berlin. She defeated Wang Xinyu 7-6 (10), 4-6, 6-2 in the final. Sabalenka and Samsonova were semifinalists.

Pegula won the title the year prior, and Samsonova won it in 2021. Bencic will be looking for her first title in Berlin, but she did make back-to-back finals in 2021 and 2022.

Though the tournament dates back to the late 1800s, the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Berlin Tennis Open (then known as the German Open) became a WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz event in 1988. In 2021 it became a WTA 500 tournament, and the surface changed from clay to grass.

Following the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Berlin Tennis Open, the tour will head to Bad Homburg and Eastbourne before concluding the Grass-Court Swing at Wimbledon.

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