Where are all the WTA tournaments in South America?

WATCH: Colombia's Camila Osorio speaks during the trophy presentation after her run to the final in Tenerife.

When No. 5 seed Camlia Osorio and Beatriz Haddad Maia kicked off their Abierto GNP Seguros campaigns on Monday with back-to-back victories on Court 1, they were more than just Colombia and Brazil’s lone representatives in Monterrey: they are the only players from the South American continent in the WTA’s Top 100.

Much like last week’s tournament in Guadalajara, the Monterrey draw is packed with Mexican wild cards, including home favorite Renata Zarazua, No. 143, and Marcela Zacarias, No. 208 in the rankings. As local wild cards, they will enjoy the invaluable experience of testing their game against the world’s best—as well as earn precious points that make scaling up the ranks just a tiny bit easier.

No one knows this better than Osorio: last year, she made her big leap into the WTA winners’ circle after claiming her maiden WTA title on home soil in Bogota as a local wild card ranked No. 180. The 20-year-old Colombian used that experience as a springboard: she now sits firmly inside the Top 50 and claimed her first Top 10 win over Elina Svitolina en route to her second WTA final in Tenerife.

But Osorio’s breakthrough is becoming an increasingly rare exception. For South American women, the lack of WTA tournaments on the continent is a crucial missing piece of the pipeline that turns promising juniors into pro contenders. Osorio herself had to leave Colombia at 11 years old and relocate to Florida to continue pursuing her dreams of playing professional tennis.

“What we are missing is WTA tournaments in order to grow,” Osorio said last week in Guadalajara. “You look at the ATP, and they have up to five tournaments. Only here in Mexico can you find tournaments to compete in, but in South America it’s difficult.”

There is only one women’s tournament located in South America: the long-running Copa Colsanitas in Bogota, which has been a mainstay on the WTA calendar since 1998. The clay-court 250 event takes place the same week as the 500-level Charleston event, and frequently runs into issues attracting top talent as the rest of the tour is already turning its attention toward European clay.

By contrast, ATP currently features four tournaments in South America, which make up the tour’s famous Golden Swing. These clay-court events in Argentina, Brazil and Chile take place back to back and occupy the weeks between the end of the Australian Open and the beginning of Indian Wells, providing South American players with more opportunities to play at home—and chances for local juniors to show their stuff.

Take Argentina, for example. Argentina occupies two weeks on the ATP calendar with tournaments in Cordoba and Buenos Aires, which form a steady pipeline for promising young talents including Sebastian Baez and Francisco Cerundolo to climb up the rankings.

Former World No. 8 Diego Schwartzman is the continent’s No. 1 player, and many more countrymen are coming up right behind him: there are seven Argentines inside the ATP Top 100—right behind France’s eight, but ahead of the likes of Germany, Italy and Australia (6)—and there are eight more waiting in the wings just inside the Top 200.

By contrast, the WTA features two Argentines inside the Top 200: Nadia Podoroska and Paula Ormaechea. There hasn’t been a WTA event in Argentina since 1987, although Buenos Aires made a return to the calendar as a WTA 125K Series event last year.

With WTA sanctions seemingly up for grabs in the fall as a result of the tour’s ongoing boycott of China, there’s no better time for women’s tennis to make a move in South America. Single-year licenses, like those awarded to various US cities last year, and WTA 125K events can be a good place to start.

It’s a strategy that has worked for women’s events in Mexico in the past: the tournament in Guadalajara grew from a 125K event to a WTA 250—and its organizers have signaled their intent to keep the tournament growing.

“There is absolutely the capacity [to host a 500-level event],” said Alastair Garland, vice president of Octagon which organizes the event. “There is infrastructure not only for a 125K, 250, 500 or even a 1000. There is definitely the possibility of doing it here.”

The growth of tennis in Mexico is a signal for the rest of the world that the region is hungry for more events on home soil—and that it doesn't need a standout singles champion to sustain that interest. The country already hosts one of the biggest men’s tournaments in Latin America—Acapulco, an ATP 500 event, which dropped its women’s draw in 2021—and last year Guadalajara played host to the region's largest women’s tournament: WTA Finals.

But for South American players like Osorio and Haddad Maia, it’s still little help for a tournament to spring up nearly 2000 miles away on a different continent. Between airfare, expenses and scheduling, even these tournaments in Mexico can be out of reach.

“Little by little more girls are coming up, but I have to say that for us it is much tougher to get ahead,” Osorio said. “Despite that we are still at it, and little by little we are having more of a presence.”