Being the first 1000-level tournament of the North American hard court season this year, the WTA Montreal Open has drawn many elite players, with the top eight seeds in women's singles including Gauff, Swiatek, Pegula, Andreescu, Anisimova, Keys, Boulter, and Navarro.
Just from this list of top eight seeds, we can see the overall strength of American professional tennis, as five of the eight seeds are from the United States. Additionally, there are lower-seeded players like Kenin, Krueger, Kessler, and Stearns.
Regarding the Chinese contingent, the top player Zheng Qinwen is still in a long recovery process after surgery and has confirmed her absence from several tournaments, including the US Open. Meanwhile, Wang Xinyu announced during the WT250 event in Prague this week that she would withdraw from the Montreal tournament.
Wang Xinyu faced unfair officiating during the Prague tournament, yet she still reached the women's singles semifinals, ultimately losing to the top seed Noskova and continuing her quest for her first WTA singles title.
Although Zheng Qinwen and Wang Xinyu have both withdrawn from this major event, we are still pleased to see the presence of three Chinese players among the 96 participants in the women's singles.
Veteran Zhu Lin drew a qualifying player, Glachova, in the first round, and the winner of their match will face the tournament's 12th seed, Alexandrova. The other two players from mainland China are Wang Yafan and Guo Hanyu.
Wang Yafan fought hard in the qualifiers, defeating Masarova with a score of 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the main draw, marking her first victory since returning after a six-month absence. Due to injury issues, she has only participated in two events this year and needs to defend over 400 points in the upcoming North American season.
According to the draw, Wang Yafan's opponent in the first round of the main draw is Starodubtseva, and the winner of their match will challenge the tournament's 21st seed, Frech.
In contrast, Guo Hanyu's entry into the main draw seems more fortunate; she replaced the qualifier Townsend in the draw and swept the Romanian veteran Buzarnescu with two 6-0 sets in the qualifiers, earning 30 points and $12,770 in prize money.
Guo Hanyu, who made it to the main draw, will face Kazakhstan player Putintseva, who plays an aggressive style, and the winner of their match will challenge the tournament's second seed, Swiatek.
It is worth mentioning that in the men's singles draw of this event, we see a long-missed Chinese player—Shang Juncheng. After players like Paul and Dimitrov withdrew, he entered the main draw as a substitute and will participate in his third event of the season, having not competed since the Australian Open this year.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Barbie)