2024 China Open Women's Singles Draw: Qinwen Zheng and Sabalenka Top Filed, Xinyu Wang Faces Anisimova

Beijing China, September 23rd, 2024 - The China Open released its women’s singles main draw, with 2019 champion Naomi Osaka attending the draw ceremony in the afternoon. This year marks the first time the women’s singles draw has expanded to 96 players, with 32 seeded players receiving tournament byes in the first round. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka and No.5 seed Zheng Qinwen are both placed in the top half, setting up a potential semifinal clash between them, which has become the main highlight of the tournament.

As the Olympic gold medalist, Qinwen Zheng's performance is highly anticipated. She will open against a qualifier in the second round. If victorious, she is set to play Dayana Yastremska in the third round, a rematch of this year’s Australian Open semifinal. The fourth round will feature a tough battle for Zheng. Her potential opponents will be No.9 seed Daria Kasatkina or French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Kasatkina reached the final in Seoul, while Pavlyuchenkova defeated Zheng in Cincinnati this year.

In the quarterfinals, Zheng is likely to play either Jasmine Paolini or Donna Vekic, both familiar rivals. Paolini is the runner-up at both the Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year, but Zheng had wins over her both in Palermo and Zhengzhou last year. Vekic has also met Zheng in the Olympic final and the US Open fourth round this season, with Zheng overcoming twice.

Should Zheng advance to the semifinals, she probably face either Aryna Sabalenka or Barbora Krejcikova, both Grand Slam champions this year. Zheng lost to Sabalenka in the finals of the Australian Open and the US Open quarterfinals, expecting to make a potential home-court revenge. For the top seed, she is bidding to top the race ranking with this win, making their potential meeting match fans cannot miss.

In the bottom half of the draw, No.2 seed and US Open runner-up Jessica Pegula leads the field. She could meet No.6 seed and US Open semifinalist Emma Navarro in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Pegula’s potential opponents include Grand Slam champions Coco Gauff and Jelena Ostapenko. Naomi Osaka, former World No. 1, is also in the third quarter with Coco Gauff and will play Lucia Bronzetti from Italy in the first round. If she advances, she will face 21st seed Yulia Putintseva in the second round.

Among other Chinese players, Xinyu Wang faces a notable first-round match against Amanda Anisimova, the runner-up at this year’s WTA1000 Canadian Open. Also looming in the second round probably are between 30th seed Yue Yuan and French Open finalist and US Open semifinalist Karolina Muchova.

Several other Chinese players received favorable first-round draws: Xiyu Wang will play Viktorija Golubic, Yafan Wang faces Ashlyn Krueger, Shuai Zhang takes on McCartney Kessle, Xinxin Yao meets Cristina Bucsa, and Han Shi faces Moyuka Uchijima. Additionally, Yexin Ma will play Irina-Camelia Begu, Yufei Ren faces Nadia Podoroska, while Qiang Wang, Xinyu Gao, Sijia Wei, and Meiling Wang will all compete with qualifiers in the first round.