Emma Raducanu will face Zhu Lin in the first round of the Ningbo Open and if she gets past the Chinese veteran, she will have to navigate a nightmare path.
There had been doubts over Raducanu’s participation in the WTA 500 event following her retirement from her opening match at the Wuhan Open last year with a recent social media post suggesting she was still receiving medical treatment just days before the Ningbo event.
But the British No 1 has made her way to China’s northeastern Zhejiang province and her name remained in the main draw, giving her a chance to earn some crucial ranking points in the coming week.
The 22-year-old doesn’t have any points to defend in the last few months of the season and a good run in Ningbo will see her rise further up the rankings following her recent climb to No 29.
And Raducanu has landed in the top half of the draw with the 31-year-old Zhu – a former world No 38, who currently sits at No 230 in the WTA Rankings – her first opponent.
If she gets the better of Zhu, she will face top seed and current world No 5 Mirra Andreeva – who has a first-round bye – in the round of 16 in what will be their first-ever career meeting.
The winner of round of 16 encounter will face one of 2023 Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova/Karolina Muchova/seventh seed Diana Schaider/wildcard Wang Xinyu in the quarter-final.
Fourth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova is the second-highest seed in the top half and she is projected to make the semi-final, although she will likely have to get past eighth seed Luidila Samsonova in the last eight.
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Jasmine Paolini – who beat Iga Swiatek in the quarter-final of the Wuhan Open before losing against Coco Gauff in the last four – is the second seed and highlights the bottom half of the draw.
The Italian faces either Veronika Kudermetova or Shuai Zhang in the second round before a projected meeting against sixth seed Belinda Bencic in the quarter-final.
Paolini and third seed Elena Rybakina are the favourites to reach the semi-final, but the latter has a tricky path as she faces the winner of the Victoria Mboko and Dayana Yastremska first up before a possible meeting against seventh seed Clara Tauson.
The tournament has suffered several high-profile withdrawals as world No 4 Amanda Anisimova was due to be the top seed, but she is still struggling with a calf injury while defending champion Daria Kasatkina is also out due to injury.
Jessica Pegula was also initially in the draw, but she withdrew after her place in the season-ending WTA Finals was confirmed with her run to the semi-final of the Wuhan Open.
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