ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The WTA announced today the singles field for the 2023 edition of WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, the exciting end-of-year tournament that boasts Venus Williams, Ashleigh Barty and current WTA World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka as previous champions.
Twelve players will contest this season’s singles event, which is staged at the state-of-the-art Hengqin International Tennis Center in Zhuhai, China and takes place from Oct. 24 to 29.
Entering as No.1 seed, the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova has reached four finals this season, winning titles at the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and WTA 500 Cymbiotika San Diego Open and finishing runner-up at the WTA 500 Bank of Communications Zhengzhou Open and WTA 250 Rothesay Classic Birmingham.
The United States' Madison Keys is set to make her fourth appearance in Zhuhai and secured her place this year courtesy of her seventh career singles title, at the WTA 500 Rothesay International Eastbourne, in addition to a semifinal run at the US Open.
Grand Slam champion Jelena Ostapenko will be making her Zhuhai debut and has enjoyed a string of consistent results across 2023, including a title at the WTA 250 Rothesay Classic Birmingham, reaching the semifinal at the WTA 1000 Internazionali BNL d'Italia (Rome) and making a further four quarterfinals, including at the Australian Open and US Open.
Veronika Kudermetova picked up her second career title this season, winning at the WTA 500 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. She also reached the final on grass at the Libéma Open in 's-Hertogenbosch.
Liudmila Samsonova posted a new career-high ranking this season of No.12 and reached the two biggest finals of her career in 2023, at WTA 1000 events at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers (Montreal) and the China Open (Beijing). She also made an additional final at the WTA 500 Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open to set her on the road to qualifying for Zhuhai.
Daria Kasatkina played the WTA Elite Trophy in 2018 and is returning to Zhuhai coming off two finals appearances this season, finishing as runner-up at the WTA 500 Adelaide International and on the grass of the WTA 500 Rothesay International Eastbourne.
It’s been a history-making season for Beatriz Haddad Maia, who became the first Brazilian woman to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam since 1968 with her run to the last four at Roland Garros. Haddad Maia also became the first of her countrywomen to break into the WTA Top 10.
Home favorite Zheng Qinwen enters the WTA Elite Trophy in red-hot form coming off the biggest title of her career earlier this month at the WTA 500 Bank of Communications Zhengzhou Open. Earlier this season, she won her first Hologic WTA Tour title, at the WTA 250 34 Ladies Palermo Open, and also posted her best Grand Slam result by making the quarterfinals at the US Open.
This season will mark Caroline Garcia’s third appearance at the WTA Elite Trophy. She made her debut at the tournament in 2016. The Frenchwoman reached the 15th and 16th finals of her career this season, at WTA 250 events at the Open 6e Sens Métropole de Lyon and Abierto GNP Seguros in Monterrey.
Donna Vekic is another player bringing previous Zhuhai experience with her to this year’s field. She made her debut at the event in 2019. The Croatian won the fifth title of her career at the WTA 250 Abierto GNP Seguros (Monterrey) and also made an additional final at the WTA 500 bett1open presented by ecotrans Group (Berlin). She matched her best Grand Slam result with a quarterfinal run at the Australian Open.
Poland’s Magda Linette has already reached one final on Chinese soil this year, finishing as runner-up at the WTA 250 Galaxy Holding Group Guangzhou Open in September. Linette also this season enjoyed her best Grand Slam performance by reaching the semifinal at the Australian Open and broke into the WTA Top 20 for the first time in her career, peaking at No.19 in the rankings.
Entering on a wild card, Zhu Lin has enjoyed a breakout season on the Hologic WTA Tour, winning the WTA 250 Thailand Open in Hua Hin and contesting the title match at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Osaka, also a WTA 250 tournament.
The doubles teams for WTA Elite Trophy have also been confirmed and will feature the pairings of Kudermetova and Haddad Maia, Aldila Sutjiadi and Miyu Kato, Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo, Ulrikke Eikeri and Lyudmyla Kichenok, with further wild cards awarded to Xu Yifan and Wang Xiyu in addition to Jiang Xinyu and Tang Qianhui.
The WTA Elite Trophy is an end-of-season tournament held in Zhuhai, China, featuring 11 singles players ranked in the Top 30 at the end of the year plus a wild card in addition to six doubles teams contesting a round-robin format. The first edition was held in 2015 and the 2023 event will offer $2.6 million in prize money. Play begins on Tuesday Oct. 24.
