Preview WTA Wuhan Open 2024: Sabalenka targets title hat-trick as Gauff, Pegula and Paolini challenge dominance

The Wuhan Open returns for the first time in 5 years over the next week between October 7-14, 2024 taking place as the final WTA 1000 tournament on the calendar. Aryna Sabalenka leads the way as the two-time defending champion and top seed.

Our preview looks ahead to the next week with multiple facets to the draw including the WTA Race which is due to head towards somewhat of a conclusion due to the nature of the season. As well as big names missing out so the opportunities are there.

Aryna Sabalenka will aim for a hat-trick of Wuhan Open titles over the next week. It is a tournament which the Belarusian became synonymous with in her early career before she became a Grand Slam champion.

Always one that suited her power game allowing her to dictate the play albeit of course she has got older since she last played Wuhan. But the fundamentals of course remain and she has got stronger if anything so will be the outstanding favourite in the field over the next week.

She lost out to Karolina Muchova over the last week in Beijing albeit that doesn't matter a great deal as the Czech has been one of the outstanding players of this juncture of the season and only lost to Coco Gauff in full flight.

She ended a career best 15 match win streak and will look to resume that as she heads towards the WTA Finals also in the coming month. She faces either Katerina Siniakova or wild-card Alexandra Eala in the first round and could meet Donna Vekic feasibly in the third round.

Emma Navarro is also in Sabalenka's section and the pair are projected to meet in the last eight. The winner could then face off against Coco Gauff in the semi-final. The 20-year-old American comes off winning the China Open and will look for revenge against Navarro if it is her compatriot that she faces off against.

She accounted for her in the last two Grand Slams and it could stick a nail in the potential hopes of qualifying for the WTA Finals.

Speaking of, the big talking point going into Wuhan will be the race to the WTA Finals. Unlike the men who also have the Paris Masters to end the season, this is essentially it in terms of big points haul tournaments.

While visits to Japan are to come, they don't sit on the WTA 1000 radar so the time to earn big points and head towards Riyadh is now. In particular for Emma Navarro and Qinwen Zheng who are known to not be the best of friends to put it mildly especially with the American who is usually quite a calm individual not holding back on her thoughts on the Olympic gold medalist.

Now they could essentially duke it out for the final spot. At the moment Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka are qualified. Elena Rybakina is all but and won't play likely again until Riyadh so will look to hold on in third. After winning Beijing, Gauff is up into 4th spot ahead of Jasmine Paolini and Jessica Pegula who she started the week behind.

Then it is the Navarro and Qinwen Zheng conundrum. The American remains ahead of the Chinese ace. But missed a golden chance to pull away. She played in Hong Kong at a WTA 125 in order to try and perhaps press home that advantage and gain point to bring her closer to 4,000. But she now has to rely on another good run and Qinwen Zheng not picking up steam in her home country like she did this past week.

Danielle Collins is basically out while Daria Kasatkina and Paula Badosa remain the other two feasibly who could make a run. But the issue beholding Qinwen and Navarro is that Krejcikova as long as she is in the top 20 will claim a spot as Wimbledon Champion so while Qinwen currently holds 8th spot, that is basically 9th.

Also amongst the malaise of Sabalenka, Gauff and the WTA Finals are a smattering of names who have endured great seasons in Jessica Pegula and Jasmine Paolini who are second and third seeds this week.

Pegula is the highest ranked player in the bottom half of the draw and will face off against either Anastasia Potapova or Katie Volynets. She could meet Paula Badosa in the third round.

Paolini will likely have to get past Mirra Andreeva who played well in Beijing while the Italian was skittled out early in pretty poor fashion. Then potentially Qinwen Zheng in a real home coming tournament in the place she trained as a child. She has never played in Wuhan either with her resurgence coming after it was taken off the calendar.

Karolina Muchova also sits in this Quarter lurking. She reached the final in Beijing and will face Jaqueline Cristian. The Czech ace is perhaps the most in-form player in women's tennis right now and only lost to a Gauff on top form. Diana Shnaider who has also had a great season will face off against Leylah Fernandez.

But who isn't playing in Wuhan and why? Iga Swiatek is the leading player not to bother with the WTA mandatory albeit for a specific reason.

In recent weeks when she has missed the tournaments late on, it has been for personal reasons. But this time it was confirmed that it was due to a change in coach coming. She split with her long-time coach and has started the hiring process. One that could take a while and so Swiatek won't try and play.

Albeit with her spot in Riyadh secured, there is only one reason to play and that is the Year End No.1 spot and she likely again will face the opposite conundrum to last year where Sabalenka will be playing for her spot and not the other way around.

Elena Rybakina is another who won't play. She has been seen enjoying herself all smiles back home in Almaty relaxing with friends. With mooted turmoil with her ex-coach Stefano Vukov, she has seemingly taken the decision to delay her return until Riyadh likely with a new coach. So won't play in Asia this year.

Neither will Maria Sakkari who will see her ranking continue to plummet. A shoulder injury has kept her off the shelf since the US Open and she wasn't right before that either so another one not bothering this week. That makes for an open field but a new list of protagonists who have been stealing the headlines in recent months anyway to take Centre Stage again amid those missing in action.