There is plenty to play for at the WTA 500 2025 AUX Ningbo Open in China this week, with Mirra Andreeva, Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina all vying for the remaining 2 places at the coming PIF WTA Finals in Riyadh, separated by only 407 points in the WTA Race standings.
Last day at the doctor’s in Wuhan… feeling better now. Shame I couldn’t continue there but thank you for the messages. Emma Raducanu
One of them, though, will finish outside the Top 8 and will therefore be designated as the first alternate in Riyadh.
All three are in the draw here in China, where play began on Monday, but they have received byes into the 2nd-round before they compete later in the week for the 500 points on offer to the winner.
Paolini and Rybakina are also scheduled to play next week in the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan, which is the final WTA 500 tournament on the 2025 calendar ahead of the Finals, which start on 1 November in Saudi Arabia.
Diana Shnaider, the 7th seed, saw off wild-card Wang Xiyu after an hour 51 minutes on Day 1 of the Ningbo Open in China.
Two seeds did kick off the action on Day 1, with Belinda Bencic, the No 6 seed from Switzerland, cruising past Poland’s Magda Linette, 6-3 6-2, in an hour 34 minutes, while Diana Shnaider, the 7th seed from Russia, saw off Chinese wild-card Wang Xiyu, 7-5 6-3, after 1 hour and 51 minutes.
Bencic advances to meet Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva, who got the better of Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, 6-4 6-2, in and all-qualifier skirmish that lasted an hour and 39 minutes, and recorded the Ukrainian’s first tour-level win since July when she reached the Montréal 3rd-round.
Shnaider, the 2023 runner-up here in Ningbo, had to come from 0-3 down in the first set and 0-2 down in the second to defeat Wang, scoring her first win in 3 meetings over the Chinese.
Meanwhile, American McCartney Kessler dropped just a single game to her compatriot, Sofia Kenin, a former Australian Open champion, in a 53-minute 1st-round win that took only 53-minutes.
In another all-qualifier 1st-round clash, Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez came from 0-2 down in the third set to defeat Aliaksandra Sasnovich from Belarus, 2-6 7-5 6-3, and now leads their head-to-head, 3-1, following their 2 hour 10 minute outing.
British No 1 Emma Raducanu has recovered from the illness that forced her retirement in the 1st-round of Wuhan, and will play in Ningbo on Tuesday
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In action on Day 2 is Emma Raducanu, the British No 1, who was forced to retire in her 1st-round match against American Ann Li on Tuesday last week in Wuhan after struggling with the extreme heat.
Raducanu was trailing 6-1, 4-1 when she called for a medical time-out in the second set, having visibly struggled on the court, and, after having her pulse and blood pressure checked by medics, decided the 22-year-old decided she could not continue and the match was terminated.
Later she posted on social media:“Last day at the doctor’s in Wuhan… feeling better now.
“Shame I couldn’t continue there but thank you for the messages.”
Alongside this, Raducanu uploaded a picture of herself in the doctor’s office wearing a hoodie and sunglasses.
Raducanu is making her debut at this week’s Ningbo Open, and admits that she needs to ‘push harder’ if she wants to end the season on a high note and achieve her ultimate goal to be seeded for January’s Australian Open.
“I think, where it’s different is, just, it’s at the end of the season, so you need to push harder physically, you’re feeling it a bit more, and mentally as well, to just focus,” she said. “That’s probably the biggest difference.”
The former World No 10 and US Open champion faces a tough draw in Ningbo, where she meets local wild-card Zhu Lin in her first match, and, if she wins, will face Andreeva, the top seed and last year’s runner-up in round 2.
Raducanu is also slated to compete in next week’s Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, and will conclude her season at the Hong Kong Tennis Open the following week.
