The women’s draw for the 2017 Mutua Madrid Open was announced on Friday. The playing field will be led by world No 2 Angelique Kerber, with the world No 3 Karolina Pliskova being the second seed.
Kerber will open against Timea Babos of Hungary and could play Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round. Maria Sharapova, who has received a wild card to play in the tournament will, meanwhile, open against fellow Russian and 13th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The former world No 1 could face her critic Eugenie Bouchard in the second round, with a third round match to follow against Kerber.
Eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova has been drawn to face Kerber in the quarter-finals. The Russian will play Ukraine’s Katerina Siniakova in the first round.
Dominika Cibulkova and Agnieszka Radwanska have been drawn to face each other in the quarter-finals in the second quarter of the Madrid Open draw. The fourth seeded Cibulkova, who had withdrawn from the Stuttgart Open with a wrist injury, will play Jelena Jankovic in the first round. The seventh seeded Radwanska will take on Misaki Doi in her opener. If the seeds proceed without any upsets, Cibulkova will play Kerber in the semi-finals in the top-half.
In the second-half, Pliskova could face the third seed and defending champion Simona Halep in the semi-finals. The Czech will open against Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine and could face countrywomen and 15th seed Barbora Strycova in the round-of-16. The drawn quarter-finalist for Pliskova is the fifth seeded Garbine Muguruza, who kicks off her Madrid Open campaign against Timea Bacsinszky.
Pliskova’s twin, Kristyna, has been drawn to take on Halep in the opening round, who could face 16th seed Samantha Stosur in the third round. Sixth seed Johanna Konta and 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki have been drawn to play each other in the third round, with Konta as the highest seed expected as the potential quarter-finalist against Halep.