Week in Preview: WTA's Yarra River Classic, Gippsland Trophy

No, those crowds you saw in Australia when you woke up on Friday morning weren’t from 2020, or 2019, or any other year from the Before Times. They were live, in Adelaide, which is where the first post-quarantine exhibition of the 2021 season was held. Finally, we could see that there was a reward for months of lockdowns in Australia.

Now that the players are free from their own quarantines, they’re also free to compete. The WTA will kick off its belated Aussie summer off on Sunday, with two events at Melbourne Park, the Yarra Valley Classic and the Gippsland Trophy. A third, the Grampian’s Trophy, will begin on February 3. Melbourne Park, which will also host the ATP Cup next week and the Australian Open after that, is going to be a beehive. Can we have the whole season there?

The draws have been made for the first two WTA tune-ups; here’s a look ahead at what we’ll see. Put them together, and you’ve got one loaded field.

*Melbourne

$565,530; 500 level

Hard court*
Draw is here

Getty Images

“It feels bloody good to be back,” Australia’s top player, Ashleigh Barty, said on Saturday. And it feels bloody good to see a field this strong right off the bat. Barty, Sofia Kenin, Karolina Pliskova, Petra Kvitova, Serena Williams, Garbiñe Muguruza, Petra Martic, and Marketa Vontrousova are the Top 8 seeds here. With the year’s first Grand Slam coming up in a week, there’s no time to waste for anyone.

For the moment, we have nothing but questions:

How will Barty, who essentially skipped 2020, look after a year away?

Can Kenin and Muguruza, last year’s Aussie Open finalists, begin to find the momentum they’ll need to repeat their runs in 2021?

Kvitova has started fast in Australia in the past; how about this year?

How will Serena’s game look after two weeks of lockdown practice? The 39-year-old will begin her campaign for a 24th major title against either Daria Gavrilova or Viktoria Kuzmova.

Potential second-round match to watch: Kvitova vs. Venus Williams

**Melbourne

$565,530; 500 level

Hard court*
Draw is here*

Getty Images

Just about every notable player who isn’t in the Yarra Valley Classic can be found in the Gippsland Trophy. Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina, Aryna Sabalenka, Johanna Konta, Iga Swiatek, and Elise Mertens are the Top 8 seeds.

There are pretty of questions to be asked here as well:

The last time we saw Osaka, she was laying flat on her back in Ashe Stadium, carefully celebrating her second US Open title; will the iron-clad confidence she showed at that event carry over into 2021?

Halep has challenged for the Australian Open title in the past; at 29, how many more opportunities will she have to add it to her Grand Slam haul?

Swiatek is coming off one of the most impressive breakthrough Slam runs of all time, at last year’s Roland Garros; is the 19-year-old ready for everything that will come with it?

Sabalenka has won three straight titles and 15 straight matches; is this the time when she finally carries her momentum deep into a major?

First-round match to watch: Coco Gauff vs. Jill Teichmann