With an incredibly busy start to the new season, the Shenzhen Open will begin on January 4 with Belina Bencic, Aryna Sabalenka and Garbine Muguruza leading the player cohort.
Bencic, the top-seeded player at the tournament, is a US Open and WTA Finals semifinalist. Winner of the Dubai Open last season, Bencic has registered wins against Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep, Elina Svitolina, Petra Kvitova, Kiki Bertens and the number two seed and her biggest competitor at the tournament, Aryna Sabalenka. Bencic also won the title in Moscow last year.
Sabalenka returns as the defending champion to Shenzhen after she won the title last year defeating Alison Riske.
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The Belarusian defeated Riske again at the Wuhan Open to win the title, defeating Ashleigh Barty, Elena Rybakina and Kiki Bertens on her way to the final. She ended the year brilliantly, registering another win over Kiki Bertens to lift the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai in straight sets. All three of Sabalenka’s titles were won on hard-court surfaces giving her an advantage at the Shenzhen Longgang Tennis Center this week.
World no.17, Elise Mertens will be one of the top seeds at the tournament.
Mertens won the Qatar Open last year defeating Bertens, Kerber and Halep and has a 22-13 win-loss record on hard courts in the year 2019. Mertens has registered fewer match wins in 2019 compared to 2018 and will try to begin the new season improving her record with more wins.
The players will be joined by two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza. Muguruza had a less than pleasant 2019 season, suffering a first-round loss at Wimbledon, where she won the title in 2017. As a result, she ended the year 18 places behind where she started at world no.36.
Before playing at Hobart International ahead of the Australian Open, the 26-year-old will test her game at the Shenzhen Open to set the pace for the new season. Former Shenzhen Open champion Katerina Siniakova who won her first singles title in Shenzhen will return to the tournament along with China’s Wang Qiang, Zhang Shuai, Zheng Saisai, Wang Yafan and Peng Shuai.
Also Read:
- Brisbane International Live Streaming Here
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- Shenzhen Open Live Streaming Here
Rising star Elena Rybakina, who started the year at world no.182 and rose to 37 at the year-end will join the impressive list of players in a bid to win the first tournament of the season.
Rybakina won her first and only WTA title last year at Bucharest but also reached the finals at the Jiangxi Open and the quarterfinals at Wuhan where she lost to Sabalenka. In October, Rybakina reached the semifinals of the Luxembourg Open where she lost to Germany’s Julia Goerges. Her last three feats came on hard courts with a total win-loss record of 57-22 for the year, a highly impressive feat for the 20-year-old.
Since its inception since 2013, the tournament has seen Li Na pick up the title twice with her last win being integral to her claiming the Australian Open title with Simona Halep’s win boosting her to the finals at the first Grand Slam of the year highlighting the importance of players’ performances at the tournament which begins on January 4.
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