ORDER OF PLAY

CENTRE COURT - 12:00 P.M. START
Lesia TSURENKO (UKR) vs [3] Elise MERTENS (BEL)
Sorana CIRSTEA (ROU) vs [WC] WANG Xiyu (CHN)
Not before 2:00 p.m.
[8] ZHANG Shuai (CHN) vs Magda LINETTE (POL)

COURT 1 - 11:00 A.M. START
[3] Timea BABOS (HUN) vs [6] Margarita GASPARYAN (RUS) - qualifying 
Anna-Lena FRIEDSAM (GER) vs [7] Varvara GRACHEVA (RUS) - qualifying
Not before 1:00 p.m.
Katerina SINIAKOVA (CZE) vs [5] Ekaterina ALEXANDROVA (RUS)
Sara SORRIBES TORMO (ESP) vs WANG Yafan (CHN)

COURT 2 - 11:00 A.M. START
[4] Jasmine PAOLINI (ITA) vs Nicole GIBBS (USA) - qualifying 
Barbora KREJCIKOVA (CZE) vs [5] Irina-Camelia BEGU (ROU)  - qualifying
Not before 1:00 p.m.
Kateryna BONDARENKO (UKR) vs Misaki DOI (JPN)
[3] DUAN Yingying (CHN) / ZHENG Saisai (CHN) vs Tatjana MARIA (GER) / Stefanie VOEGELE (SUI)

MATCH POINTS

No.3 seed Elise Mertens is the highest-ranked player in action on the first day of main draw play, where she is joined by No.5 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and No.8 seed Zhang Shuai.

Mertens is one of eight players making her tournament debut this year in Shenzhen, alongside top seed Belinda Bencic, Kateryna Bondarenko, Misaki Doi, Shelby Rogers, Elena Rybakina, Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Sara Sorribes Tormo.

The Belgian faces a potentially tricky foe in her first round match in Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko, whom she has never beaten. Tsurenko, who was runner-up to Karolina Pliskova at the Premier-level Brisbane International to begin 2019, comes to Shenzhen to start 2020 having been sidelined with an elbow injury since last summer's Citi Open.

Read more: Shenzhen Open 2020 Draw: Top seed Bencic to face Blinkova

Former champion Katerina Siniakova will look to snap the winning streak of No.5 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in her first match. The Russian ended 2019 on a high, winning her third career title at the WTA 125 Series event in Limoges, France - but the Czech has a storied history in Shenzhen, having also finished runner-up to Simona Halep in 2018.

Kateryna Bondarenko is contesting just her fourth tournament since returning to the tour after the birth of her second child, Eva, last year, while China's Wang Yafan contests her 400th match when she steps on court against Sorribes Tormo to close out the day's slate on Court 1.

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