This content was published 5 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.

Greece’s Maria Sakkari has been named as the top seed in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia women’s qualifying draw and will open up her campaign for a main draw place against former world No. 2 Vera Zvonareva.

Sakkari will be hoping to bring the kind of form that took her to her first WTA title at Rabat earlier this month into the Foro Italico but faces a tricky opponent in Zvonareva, who has battled with injuries in recent years but is a two-time semi-finalist here.

Rising stars Amanda Anisimova, the No. 2 seed, and Anastasia Potapova, who are aged 17 and 18 respectively, will meet each other in the first round with the winner playing either No. 11 seed Kristina Mladenovic or her opponent Kaia Kanepi who reached the last eight at the French Open in 2008 and 2012.

Former Roland Garros runner-up Sam Stosur also features in the qualifying draw, she faces No. 12 seed Margarita Gasparyan in the opening round, while No. 3 seed Alize Cornet takes on Poland’s Magda Linette.

The four Italian wildcards have all been given tough first round draws. Georgia Brescia faces No. 13 seed Andrea Petkovic, 20-year-old Lucrezia Stefanini will meet the No. 15 seed Tamara Zidansek, Anastasia Grymalska takes on Olympic champion Monica Puig and Genoa’s Cristiana Ferrando will play No. 16 seed Pauline Parmentier.

Qualifying gets underway on Saturday with the women’s main draw matches starting on Monday.