Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff miss out on China Open byes
US Open champion Coco Gauff and world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka have missed out on first round byes at the China Open.
Sabalenka is seeded first for the tournament but will open her China Open in the first round against Sofia Kenin.
Meanwhile, Coco Gauff will make her return to action at the WTA Tour’s final WTA 1000 event of the season.
Gauff is set to take on Ekaterina Alexandrova in the first round as the No 3 seed in the China Open draw.
Instead of handing byes to the top four seeds, the byes were instead given to the four players who reached the semi-finals in Tokyo given the considerable overlap between the events and as part of a WTA trial on the performance bye system.
The four byes were given to Jessica Pegula, Maria Sakkari, Veronika Kudermetova, and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Among them only Pegula would have received a bye under the traditional system.
Sabalenka or Kenin will go on to face one of a pair of qualifiers who are yet to be determined.
The top quarter of the draw also features 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, San Diego champion Barbora Krejcikova and 15th seeded Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia.
This top quarter also holds arguable the fiercest first-round draw of the tournament, with No 5 seed Rybakina faces US Open quarterfinalist Zheng Qinwen who comes into Beijing fresh off a gold medal run at the Asian Games and is playing her tournament debut in her home event.
Friday, and No 7 seed Ons Jabeur. The Tunisian had a good week in Ningbo, where she reached her first final since Wimbledon and her first on a hard court since the US Open in 2022.
Pegula will face either Donna Vekic or Anna Blinkova in the second round thanks to her Performance Bye.
No12 seed Petra Kvitova and No 13 seed Jelena Ostapenko are also in the second quarter of the draw. Kvitova will play Wang Xiyu in the first round in a battle of lefties. Ostpapenko will tackle a qualifier.
Gauff will compete in her maiden event as a Major champion as part of the third quarter. The World No 3 makes her debut in China and will face Alexandrova in the first round.
Sakkari and Kudermetova, are both in this division and have first-round byes. In the second round, Sakkari will face either Linda Fruhvirtova or Arantxa Rus as she seeks to break into the top eight of the WTA Finals race.
World No 2 Iga Swiatek is making her tournament debut and anchors the bottom quarter of the draw. She is joined in the section by Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova and the draw’s only two past champions, Caroline Garcia (2017) and Victoria Azarenka (2012).
Swiatek will face Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain in the first round.
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