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The Asian swing continues with the 2023 Ningbo Open, which will be held from September 25-30.
The WTA tour will head to the Chinese city for the first time since 2014. The country is also hosting tournaments after a gap of four years, as pandemic related restrictions and the Peng Shuai scandal brought all tennis related events to a standstill.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova headlines the field as the star attraction. Quite a few well-known names have also signed up to compete here. So without any further ado, below are all the information related to this year's edition of the Ningbo Open:
What is the Ningbo Open?
While overall this will be the sixth edition of the tournament, this will be the first time it'll be held as a WTA 250 event. It started off as an ITF event in 2010 and in 2013, was upgraded to a WTA 125k event.
The tournament was discontinued after the 2014 edition, but now finds itself back on the calendar yet again. Hsieh Su-wei and Magda Linette are some of the former champions at the venue.
Venue
The tournament will be held at the Yinzhou Tennis Center in Ningbo, China.
Players
Petra Kvitova is the top seed at the 2023 Ningbo Open. She has won a couple of titles this year, including the Miami Open. She'll be competing for the first time since losing to old rival Caroline Wozniacki in the second round of the US Open.
Sorana Cirstea is seeded second here. She made it to her second Major quarterfinal at the US Open, 14 years after reaching her first one at the 2009 French Open. The Romanian has notched up some impressive results this season and will be aiming to continue her good run of form here as well.
Anastasia Potapova and Elise Mertens are seeded third and fourth respectively. The former suffered a shock defeat to Emiliana Arango in the first round of the Guadalajara Open, while the latter bowed out in the second round.
Jennifer Brady, who's in the midst of a comeback, is in the draw too. She made it to the third round of the US Open in singles and the semifinals in doubles. Alycia Parks, Mayar Sherif and Wang Xiyu are some of the other prominent names in the fray.
Schedule
The qualifing rounds are scheduled to be held from September 23-24. The main draw action will commence on Monday, September 25. The quarterfinals, semifinals and the final will take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday respectively.
Prize Money
The total prize money for the 2023 Ningbo Open is $259,303. The winner will receive a cheque worth $34,228 along with 280 ranking points. Below are a breakdown of the prize money and points:
Where to watch
Viewers in the US, UK and Australia can watch the Ningbo Open live on the following channels and sites:-
USA: All matches will be broadcast on Tennis Channel.
UK: British fans can catch all the action live on Amazon Prime Video.
Australia: Viewers across the country can watch the matches on beIN Sports.
For more information regarding the broadcast of matches, click here.
