WUHAN, September 24, 2017 (Press Release)

A sell-out 15,000-strong crowd welcomed their hometown hero Li Na as she officially opened the 2017 Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open on Sunday.

Li Na was joined by Svetlana Kuznetsova and both were greeted with a huge roar when they walked out on centre court as part of an opulent opening ceremony at the Optics Valley International Tennis Centre. Wuhan-born Li Na is an ambassador for the US$2,666,000 WTA Premier tournament.

Sunday saw main draw play get underway with some big upsets to get the tournament started. Lesia Tsurenko knocked out Carla Suarez Navarro, while Katerina Siniakova proved too strong for 13th seed Kristina Mladenovic. Olympic champion Monica Puig continued her run through the qualifying rounds to outlast Mona Barthel 6-0, 6-7(0), 6-4.

Monday sees a host of big names join the fray, with newly-crowned US Open champion Sloane Stephens playing her first competitive match since lifting the trophy at Flushing Meadows when she takes on Chinese favourite Qiang Wang. Madison Keys, runner-up to Stephens in New York, is also in action  – against qualifer Varvara Lepchenko – while former World No.1 Angelique Kerber takes on Caroline Garcia in what is set to be a high quality first round encounter.

Fifth seed Johanna Konta and ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska will both be in action on Monday, playing Ashleigh Barty and Magdalena Rybarikova respectively.

In what’s likely to be a highly-anticipated night session match, defending Wuhan Open champion Petra Kvitova will be up against China’s Shuai Peng in the biggest match of the tournament so far.

2017 DONGFENG MOTOR WUHAN OPEN – WUHAN, CHINA
$2,666,000
22-30 SEPTEMBER, 2017

RESULTS – SEPTEMBER 24, 2017
Women’s
Singles – First Round
K. Siniakova (CZE) d [13] K. Mladenovic (FRA) 63 62
E. Makarova (RUS) d [15] A. Sevastova (LAT) 64 62
[16] E. Vesnina (RUS) d [WC] Y. Duan (CHN) 63 64
L. Tsurenko (UKR) d C. Suárez Navarro (ESP) 63 76(12)
[Q] M. Linette (POL) d A. Kontaveit (EST) 75 64
[Q] M. Puig (PUR) d M. Barthel (GER) 60 67(0) 64
S. Cirstea (ROU) d [WC] Y. Wang (CHN) 63 63
A. Barty (AUS) d C. Bellis (USA) 75 60
[Q] M. Sakkari (GRE) d Y. Putintseva (KAZ) 16 64 62
[Q] C. Mchale (USA) d R. Vinci (ITA) 64 64

Women’s
Doubles – First Round
[6] A. Groenefeld (GER) / K. Peschke (CZE) d O. Savchuk (UKR) / K. Srebotnik (SLO) 16 76(6) 10-4
R. Atawo (USA) / D. Jurak (CRO) d L. Kichenok (UKR) / R. Olaru (ROU) 62 67(5) 10-7
S. Aoyama (JPN) / Z. Yang (CHN) d L. Davis (USA) / A. Riske (USA) 61 60