Linz Open 2026 Entry List: Four Grand Slam winners; will Raducanu and Eala be seeded?

The Upper Austria Ladies Linz will be the first clay-court tournament on European soil in 2026 and the field will include four Grand Slam winners.

The WTA 500 event will feature only three top-20 players as several WTA stars will be in action in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers taking place at the same time next week, while others have opted to take an extended break after the Sunshine Double in the United States.

Defending champion and world No 13 Ekaterina Alexandrova will be the top seed as she is the highest-ranked player in the main draw of the 35th edition of the Austria tournament that will be staged at the Design Centre Linz.

How many players will feature at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz?

The WTA Tour event is a 28-player singles draw competition and the eight highest-ranked players in the field will be seeded with the top four receiving byes into the second round.

Besides Alexandrova, Clara Tauson (No 17), Liudmila Samsonova (No 21), Jeļena Ostapenko (No 23), Emma Navarro (No 25), Emma Raducanu (No 28), Sorana Cirstea (No 29) and Jaqueline Cristian (No 35) are the seeds.

Rising star Alex Eala has dropped to No 45 in the WTA Rankings after the Miami Open so she misses out on a seeding for the tournament.

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Of the 28 players in the main draw, three have received wildcards and they are Austrians Julia Grabher, Sinja Kraus and Lilli Tagger while former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova has used her protected ranking to enter.

Six players will earn their spots in the main draw through qualifying, while the remaining players are direct entries (see the full list below).

The Grand Slam winners who will feature are Barbora Krejcikova (2024 Wimbledon and 2021 French Open), Marketa Vondrousova (2022 Wimbledon), Raducanu (2021 US Open) and Ostapenko (2017 French Open).

What are the key dates and when will the draw take place?

The main draw starts on Monday, 6 April with the final set for Sunday, 12 April in Austria’s third-largest city.

The official draw ceremony has been pencilled in for 10:30am on Easter Sunday, 5 April.

2026 Upper Austria Ladies Linz Entry List:

1. Ekaterina Alexandrova
2. Clara Tauson
3. Liudmila Samsonova
4. Jeļena Ostapenko
5. Emma Navarro
6. Emma Raducanu
7. Sorana Cirstea
8. Jaqueline Cristian

Wildcards
Julia Grabher
Sinja Kraus
Lilli Tagger

Protected Ranking
Karolina Pliskova

Other Entrants
Ann Li
Sara Bejlek
Marketa Vondrousova
Alexandra Eala
Dayana Yastremska
Barbora Krejcikova
Tatjana Maria
Shuai Zhang
Katie Boulter
Daria Kasatkina
Qualifier
Qualifier
Qualifier
Qualifier
Qualifier
Qualifier

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