Google News
The 16-year-old Dane Clara Tauson has been among the youngsters to watch so far in 2019, winning J1 Traralgon and the Australian Open to become junior world no. 1 and conquering back-to-back pro events in Monastir, Shenzhen and Xiamen.
Overall, Clara has won 27 out of 29 singles matches this year, standing on the verge of the top-400 and as the fourth-best player born in 2002 after Whitney Osuigwe, Marta Kostyuk and Leylah Fernandez who she beat in the final of the Australian Open.
After Monastir, the Dane went to China and entered her first W60 event in Shenzhen, scoring some impressive wins to go all the way in what was only her seventh professional event, celebrating another title in the following week before taking some well-deserved rest.
Junior no. 1 and one of the most promising youngsters in the world has decided to skip all the W15 events in April and instead of that she will have the opportunity to make WTA debut in Lugano next week, securing a wild card for another big step in her career.
The second edition of the Samsung Open brings a strong field of players that gather Anett Kontaveit, Belinda Bencic (she could withdraw with a possible deep run in Charleston, though), Carla Suarez Navarro, Camila Giorgi, Dominika Cibulkova and others.
Besides Clara, the 33-year-old Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova has also received an invitation, returning to action for the first time since September, and it should be interesting to see against whom will Tauson make the WTA debut.
Clara will have a chance against almost anyone in the field if she brings her 'A game,' winning Perin Memorial, Florence and the European Junior Championships on clay in 2018 and possessing all the skills to challenge the more experienced and better-ranked opponents.