WTA Tour action continues in Ningbo, China next week with the penultimate WTA 500 tournament of the season, the Ningbo Open, and the last spot in the 8-player field at the WTA Finals up for grabs.
World No 6 Jasmine Paolini is the top seed, with Zheng Qinwen, Emma Navarro and Barbora Krejcikova taking the 2-4 seeded spots in the 28-woman field, and all 4 receiving 1st-round byes.
The PIF Race to the WTA Finals is now coming down the wire, and the stakes are high in Ningbo, where 10 of the Top 20 in the rankings are scheduled to play, with Zheng and Navarro vying for the last remaining automatic entry place in Riyadh, just 2 weeks away.
Krejcikova, the reigning Wimbledon champion, holds the last spot at the WTA Finals, and Zheng, who surged ahead of Navarro in Wuhan, goes into Ningbo at No 7 in the race, but a poor run here could open the door for Navarro to leap-frog past her into the final 8.
Paolini and Navarro anchor the top half of the Ningbo draw, along with No 6 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia and 8th seed Paula Badosa.
Paolini, Haddad Maia and Badosa have all enjoyed good success during the fall Asian swing, with the Italian making the quarter-finals in Wuhan, the Brazilian picking up her first title of the year at the Hana Bank Open in Seoul, and the Spaniard reaching the Last 4 in Beijing.
Badosa withdrew from Wuhan due to illness, and returns to competition against Diana Shnaider in the 1st-round.
Navarro will need to rebound from her 0-2 start to her China swing if she is to lock down an automatic berth for her first WTA Finals, and she face either Magda Linette or Katerina Siniakova in her 2nd-round opener and could face Haddad Maia in the quarters.
Zheng and Krejcikova are the top seeds in the bottom half of the draw, along with No 5 seed Daria Kasatkina and 7th seed Anna Kalinskaya.
The Chinese No 1 will have a quick turn-around to Ningbo, and could face Beijing finalist Karolina Muchova in her opener.
The Czech, who defeated Zheng in the Beijing semi-finals, withdrew from Wuhan last week due to fatigue, and faces Olivia Gadecki, an Australian qualifier, in the 1st-round.
Katie Boulter and Mirra Andreeva are unseeded in the draw, and the British No 1 opens against Italian qualifier Sara Errani, while the Russian Varvara Lepchenko, an American qualifier.
The defending champion is Ons Jabeur, who will not be participating as the Tunisian ended her season early to deal with injury, but last year’s finalist Diana Shnaider will return to open against Badosa.
The total prize money for the 2023 Ningbo Open is $267,082, with the winner to receive $142,000, while the runner-up will earn a cheque for $87,655.
Emma Navarro needs a good run in Ningbo to have a chance of pipping Zheng Qinwen for the last spot in the WTA Final in 2 weeks time.
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