The entry list for the 2016 Taiwan Open held in Kaohsiung has been released by tournament organizers, and world number 7 Venus Williams headlines the field as the only top 50 player participating in the inaugural staging of the WTA International event.
World number 52 Zarina Diyas is next on the list and will be the number two seed, unless a top 50 player takes a last minute wildcard into the Taiwanese event. Rounding out the top eight seeds are Japan’s Misaki Doi, Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic, China’s Zheng Saisai, Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, Japan’s Kurumi Nara and Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova – all of whom are currently ranked in the top 85.
Other players on the entry list include Magda Linette, Urszula Radwanska, Alison Riske, Stefanie Voegele, Kristyna Pliskova and Pauline Parmentier.
But that’s not all – Chinese Taipei's very own Hsieh Su-Wei and Chang Kai-Chen have confirmed their participation in next year's event, joining WTA Rising Stars Donna Vekic and Elizaveta Kulichkova, who will also play in the $500,000 event.
Interestingly, China's Peng Shuai is one of three alternates for the main draw. The 29-year-old ended her 2015 season halfway through the year at the French Open due to a painful back injury, one that had been nagging her ever since she played Fed Cup in February. In mid-July, Peng underwent surgery to repair her ailing backbone, "Before it was too late." At the China Open in October, Peng said she was hoping to make a successful return to the professional tour in 2016, but there has been no news on her physical condition as of right now.
Kaohsiung will be one of a record nine WTA Premier tournaments held across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan next season, and will be just the second women’s professional tennis event in Taiwan, having successfully hosted a WTA $125,000 tournament for the last three years. The event will be held during the week of February 8th, and will be played at the Yang-Ming Tennis Centre, which holds a 5,000-seat centre court, a 650-seat additional stadium, as well as 10 additional courts on-site.