Top half
1 Maria vs MF Alves
Peterson vs Torro-Flor
Cepede Royg vs Gonçalves
Sevastova vs 6 Chirico
4 Pereira vs Irigoyen
Ozaki vs Qualifier
Qualifier vs Kostova
Melnikova vs 7 Siegemund
Bottom half
8 Kania vs Qualifier
Qualifier vs Ce
Ormaechea vs Lim
C.Alves vs 3 Beck
5 Mattek-Sands vs Minella
Bogdan vs WC Stefani
Qualifier vs Martincova
Qualifier vs 2 Tomljanovic
This has to be one of the worst fields I have ever seen
The surface change was announced before the cut-off for the main draw, which was 6 weeks ago. Presumably, there were some/many withdrawals between the change being announced and the cut-off date. We wouldn't know who they were unless the players themselves came out and said so. Some might have planned to use it as a lead-in to the North American hard court season. Say, Florianopolis -> Washington. The Saturday finish would have facilitated that. The qualifying cut-off was only 3 weeks ago, so all the potential qualifiers knew full well about the surface.
Only 4 withdrawals from the main draw list is not unusual, and it's far from the worst this year. Check out Acapulco or Monterrey. The number of qualifiers withdrawing is not unusual either. It's just that the qualifying list was very weak to begin with. Very few low-ranked players could afford to travel from Europe, Asia or even North America to play qualifiers here.
Paula Kania going here for her very first WTA title (hopefully ) I would not mind Martincova either, but it's probably going to be Mattek-Sands or someone really random like Peterson.
Alize Lim has a really good chance to win her 1st (?) WTA MD match here too Ormaechea is slumping recently, but it's her best surface nevertheless.
I don't like calling them soft. You could sya virtually anything below grand slam level will eb softer. We have titles at different levels. Those who are seeds will be thinking "I can or even should win this one" and even more urgently some of them will also think "When will I get a better chance for my first WTA title?".
All of that makes it stakes on the line in a career defining, potentially more heart breaking and a more exciting tournament. I love it when it's like that.
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