Aryna Sabalenka has the chance to close the gap to Iga Swiatek in the WTA Rankings to under 100 points in the coming week, but the draw gods have not been kind to the world No 2 for the Wuhan Open.
With Swiatek skipping a second consecutive WTA 1000 event, Sabalenka has a golden opportunity to put more pressure on her rival for the No 1 ranking with only the WTA Finals remaining on their schedules after Wuhan.
Following her run to the quarter-final of the China Open, Sabalenka will start the Wuhan tournament 1,069 points behind the Pole and – with 1,000 points on offer to the winner – that deficit can be reduced to the narrowest of margins if the reigning Australian Open and US Open champion lift the trophy.
Swiatek will not feature in Wuhan after she confirmed that she needed a break after parting ways with her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski so she will remain on 9,785 points while the Belarusian can only add to her 9,716 points.
But Sabalenka will have to come through a difficult field despite being the top seed as she will face either Katerina Siniakova or wildcard Alexandra Eala in the first round while she could meet Zhang Shuai, Yulia Putintseva or 15th seed Donna Vekic in the third round.
Zhang caused some big upsets at the China Open as she defeated sixth seed Emma Navarro en route to the quarter-final.
Navarro herself is in Sabalenka’s section as the pair are projected to meet in the last eight in Wuhan with that winner likely face fourth seed Coco Gauff in the semi-final.
Gauff, who has reached the final of the China Open, faces Ashlyn Krueger or Viktoriya Tomova in the second round while she could meet eighth seed Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-final.
World No 3 Jessica Pegula is the highest-ranked player in the bottom half of the draw and the American will kick off her campaign against either Anastasia Potapova or Katie Volynets while she could meet 14th seed Paula Badosa – a semi-finalist in Beijing – in the third round.
The second-seeded Pegula is projected to meet Barbora Krejcikova in the quarter-final and third seed Jasmine Paolini in the last four.
Paolini, though, will most likely have to get past 16th seed Mirra Andreeva in the third round and fifth seed Qinwen Zheng in the quarter-final if she is to reach the latter stages of the tournament.
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