Sakkari, Samsonova top Bad Homburg field; Svitolina to face Wozniacki

The second of three WTA 500 events this grass-court season will see the seventh installment of the all-time rivalry between Elina Svitolina and Caroline Wozniacki. The two former Top 10 players have been drawn to face each other in the first round of the Bad Homburg Open powered by Solarwatt.

Both women made a comeback to the Hologic WTA Tour last year as mothers, and will face off for the second time since coming back on the German grass courts. Svitolina is the No.7 seed, ranked No.21, while former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki is a wild-card entry. Svitolina is playing for the first time since losing in the fourth round of the French Open, while Wozniacki lost her first match on grass in five years this week in Birmingham, in straight sets to Elise Mertens.

Svitolina leads the all-time head-to-head between the two 5-1, including a 6-4, 6-3 win in Auckland in January, but they've never played on grass.

World No.9 Maria Sakkari is the only Top 10 player in the field, and is the top seed. Libema Open champion Liudmila Samsonova, the World No.15 is seeded second. Sakkari's first opponent is Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who is through to the semifinals at this week's Rothesay Classic in Birmingham, while Samsonova's first opponent is Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo. 

American Emma Navarro is seeded No.3 -- and landed in Sakkari's half -- while Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia is seeded No.4 and will face Anna Kalinskaya in the first round. Victoria Azarenka, Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Mirra Andreeva round out the seeds. Seventeen-year-old Andreeva is playing for the first time since Roland Garros, where she was the youngest semifinalist in two decades. Seeded eighth, she will face Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine in the first round. 

Also entered in the tournament as wild cards are former World No.2 Paula Badosa who first faces Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands and could face Sakkari; and 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, who lost to Samsonova in the final in 's-Hertogenbosch in just her second tournament of the year after a back injury. The Canadian opens against Anna Blinkova, and the winner of that match will face either Haddad Maia or Kalinskaya.