SWITZERLAND’S top female player and top 10 talent, Belinda Bencic will lead the entrants at the 2020 Shenzhen Open in China. Also featuring a two-time Grand Slam winner, a couple of top 20 players and a eastern European young gun, there is plenty to like about the upcoming tournament.

FAVOURITE:

Bencic is one of the rising stars on the WTA Tour, ranked eighth in the world currently and is still 22-years-old. Following a career best 51-25 season in 2019, Bencic started the year off in style by winning the now-defunct Hopman Cup with Roger Federer – and sparking what many social media fans might remember as the greatest 10 Year Challenge post of them all.

Bencic had an immediate impact at the WTA Finals with a three sets win over former world number one, Petra Kvitovaand winning via walkover against Kiki Bertens. Nonetheless, it has to be said in a lesser ranked tournament, Bencic would be the favourite here.

CONTENDERS:

It is far from a conclusive result however, with reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka – still ranked 11th in the world – returning to Shenzhen to try and defend her title. The 21-year-old Belarussian won three of her five WTA Tour titles in 2019, all of which came in China at Shenzhen, Wuhan and Zhuhai. Almost considered a specialist in China, Sabalenka would be the best chance of knocking off Bencic and would be the second favourite to go back-to-back.

World number 17 Elise Mertens is the other top 20 player competing at the event, but like many non-Premier level tournaments, the top-end quality of the draw falls away. Mertens won at Doha in 2019, but has largely not lived up to expectations, claiming all minor tournaments from 2017-2018, including back-to-back titles at Hobart. The big plus will be the fact Mertens’ title in Lugano (2018) was a win in the final against Sabalenka which would give her confidence.

China will always have a good representation, with world number 30 Qiang Wang likely to have a good seeding at home. Both of her singles titles have come on home soil – both were 2018 – but not quite the resume of Bencic or Sabalenka holds.

DARK HORSE:

Largely forgotten given she has only won two tournaments in the past two years – both at Monterrey – you cannot discount two-time Grand Slam winner, Garbine Muguruza. It almost seems a world away since her three year run from 2015-2017, winning at Roland Garros (2016) and Wimbledon (2017), having gone one better at the All England Club after a runners-up effort in 2015. Currently ranked 35th in the world and still only 26, is there still more to come from the underrated Spaniard? Or were those glory years just that?

ROUGHIE:

The final name worth bringing up in the discussion in 20-year-old young gun, Elena Rybakina. Twelve months ago, the Russian-born Kazakhstan national was ranked a lowly 191st in the world. Fast forward a year and she is ranked 36th in the world. She only won the one title at Bucharest – her maiden WTA Tour title – and finished runners-up once at Nanchang, but made numerous semi-finals and quarter finals in events. The knock on the young star was her Grand Slam efforts, losing in Round 1 at Roland Garros and the US Open, and failing to qualify for the Australian Open and Wimbledon. It will not be a problem at Melbourne Park this year, and she is ranked 36th for a reason, but will be keen to start the year off on the right foot.