UPDATED: Teen sensation Coco Gauff joins Venus and Serena in Central Kentucky tourney
Next month’s Top Seed Open presented by Bluegrass Orthopaedics in Nicholasville added to its celebrity roll call this week with the announcement that Venus Williams will be joining her sister Serena for the inaugural event.
The $225,000 Women’s Tennis Association Tournament, to be played at the new Top Seed Tennis Club on Brannon Road outside Lexington, also revealed Monday that two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka has joined the field.
Then on Tuesday, the tournament said one of the sport’s fastest-rising stars, 16-year-old phenom Cori “Coco” Gauff, is also scheduled to appear.
The remaining participants — 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams — are expected to be announced later this week.
Last week, Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens agreed to come to Central Kentucky for the first sanctioned women’s or men’s professional tennis tournament scheduled in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic began forcing the shutdown of sports last March.
Serena Williams, winner of a record 23 Grand Slam tournaments, is No. 9 in the world in the current WTA rankings. Stephens, champion of the U.S. Open in 2017, is No. 37. Gauff comes in at No. 52, Azarenka at No. 58, and Venus Williams at No. 67.
Venus Williams, winner of seven Grand Slam events, played in three tournaments in 2020 before the pandemic hit. Most recently, Williams lost in the round of 32 to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova at the Abierto GNP Seguros in Monterrey, Mexico, in the first week in March. The Top Seed Open will be Williams’ first U.S. appearance this year.
Williams has won Wimbledon five times and the U.S. Open twice. She has also won 14 doubles majors in tandem with Serena. Venus also won a singles gold medal for the United States at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and has won doubles gold with Serena in Sydney, Beijing (2008) and London (2012).
Azarenka, from Belarus, was also defeated in the opening round of the tournament in Monterrey, which was her only match this year.
Gauff burst on the scene last year as a 15-year-old, advancing to the fourth round at Wimbledon and the third round at the U.S. Open. She already has one WTA singles title to her credit.
Gauff has not played since the 2020 Australian Open last January, where she advanced to the round of 16. She defeated Venus Williams in her opening-round match.
The Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships, a pro tournament with men’s and women’s divisions, has been held in Lexington for the past 28 years. This year’s event, scheduled for Aug. 3-9 at the University of Kentucky, was canceled recently because of COVID-19 concerns.
The new event in Nicholasville quickly picked up the slack. It will be the first WTA tournament played in the U.S. since the Oracle Challenger Series March 2-8 at Indian Wells, Calif. The following week’s tournament was canceled because of the pandemic and no events have been played since.
The men’s ATP Tour was scheduled to restart Aug. 14-21 with the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., but that event has been postponed. Next up for the men is the Western and Southern Open, Aug. 22-28. The event has been moved from its traditional home in Cincinnati to New York this year.
The newly constructed Top Seed Tennis Club, located just outside Man o’ War Boulevard at 777 E. Brannon Road, is home to tennis tournaments of all levels. The grounds include 12 indoor and nine outdoor courts, a 4,000 square foot gym and yoga studio, player lounges and fully equipped locker rooms, and a full-service bar and lounge, among other amenities.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 8:15 AM.