World 1 Iga Swiatek will kick off her Poland Open campaign against world No 181 Nigina Abduraimova and if the form book holds then there could be a rematch of the Roland Garros final on the cards.
Swiatek met Karolina Muchova in the French Open final just over a month ago and it was the former who came out on top to win her fourth Grand Slam and the pair could meet again in Poland this week.
Warsaw-born Swiatek will be making her second appearance in her home event as last year she reached the quarter-final of the WTA 250 tournament, losing in three sets against fifth seed and eventual champion Caroline Garcia.
The four-time major champion will start her 2023 campaign against Abduraimova – who is 22-21 this year with all of the Uzbekistan player’s wins coming on the ITF Circuit – in what will be their first-ever meeting on the outdoor hard courts at the Legia Tennis Centre on Tuesday.
Swiatek is looking for her fourth title in 2023 having already won the Qatar Open, Stuttgart Grand Prix and the French Open.
Another title win would give Swiatek a boost ahead of the North American hard-court swing and would help her to extend her advantage over Aryna Sabalenka in the WTA Rankings. The difference between the top two is currently 470 points, but that could grow to 750 if the Pole wins the title.
The winner of the Swiatek-Abduraimova clash will face either American Clare Liu or Yuan Yue in the second round while the first test will come in the quarter-final with eighth seed Linda Noskova the projected opponent.
Eighteen-year-old Czech sensation Noskova will kick off her campaign against a qualifier.
Third seed Katerina Siniakova is also in the top half of the draw and the Czech faces Great Britain’s Heather Watson in the first round while she is projected to meet fifth seed Zhang Shuai in the last eight.
Second seed Muchova headlines the bottom half of the draw and the French Open runner-up has a tricky first-round encounter as she is up against former world No 29 Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
If Muchova gets through the first two matches then she is likely to face Camila Giorgi in the quarter-final, although the sixth-seeded Italian has to get past Tatjana Maria in her first-round clash.
Fourth seed Zhu Lin from China faces compatriot Xiy Wang in the first round and Zhu could take on another Czech teenager in Linda Fruhvirtova in the quarter-final.
The 18-year-old Fruhvirtova, seeded seventh, opens her campaign against Lucrezia Stefanini from Italy.
