‘I’m just going to try to enjoy myself, says Petra Martic ahead of Palermo Ladies Open

Tennis News

Top seed Petra Martic said winning matches will not be her main focus when the women’s tour restarts at next week’s Palermo Ladies Open.

The WTA Tour resumes on Monday in Sicily after it was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Croatia’s Martic, the world number 15, plays Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck in her opening match.

“It’s been so long without tennis, without competition, without the adrenaline that we all kind of love,” Martic told the WTA’s official website.

“So I was really excited to hear that Palermo and Prague will be 100 per cent organised and will go on.

“So I’m just going to try to enjoy myself. To be back on the court right now is really just a privilege without thinking about any results or any goals or focused on numbers or anything else.”

The 29-year-old, who reached the quarter-finals at the 2019 French Open, is one of three of the WTA’s top 20 players at the tournament.

The event will still go ahead despite an unnamed player testing positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, who is now in isolation.

A WTA statement read: “A player has tested positive for Covid-19 and has subsequently withdrawn from the tournament. The player is asymptomatic.

“Following this information, the WTA, in coordination with the tournament infection control officer and along with its medical advisors and infectious disease specialist from the Mayo Clinic, immediately put its COVID-19 response plan into action.

“Any individual who tests positive will remain in isolation until cleared by a physician per the established protocols, and will receive proper medical treatment.

“In addition, all those who may have been in close contact with the individual are undergoing testing per WTA protocols. The 31st Ladies Open will continue as planned.”

World number 18 Marketa Vondrousova, from the Czech Republic, faces a qualifier in the opening round and Greece’s world number 20 Maria Sakkari will play Kristyna Pliskova.

The WTA Tour next moves on to the Prague Open (August 10-16), with a behind-closed-doors US Open scheduled to start on August 31.

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Maria Sakkari Marketa Vondrousova Petra Martic

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