The no. 1 seed in the tournament is young US star Emma Navarro, currently ranked 22nd in the world, and players from the top 50 taking part in the tournament include Dutch Arantxa Rus and French Diane Parry.
The list currently includes six representatives of Croatia - Jana Fett, Antonia Ružić, Lea Bošković, Lucija Ćirić Bagarić, Petra Marčinko and Tena Lukas, while the national under-16 champion Marta Perić and Mariana Dražić from Makarska are still in the running for the qualifications. Director Lukas's goal is to break the record and have the largest number of Croatian women's representatives at the tournament.
"This tournament is one of the 25 large sports events that we are financing this year through the public call, and in addition we are also financing a number of other sports events. This year alone, we have allocated €13 million for large sports events, and we have been a partner of the WTA tournament in Makarska for five years," said Krešimir Šamija, the head of the Sports Directorate at the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
"The tournament is also important for the promotion of Croatia as a sports nation. Croatia is one of the first five, six countries in the world in terms of the number of medals per capita and in a way we are a wonder of the world," he added.