THREE of the 21 World No.1s in WTA Rankings -- Caroline Wozniacki, Sara Errani and Roberta Vince -- will participate in the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai at Hengqin International Tennis Centre on November 2-10. In addition, 35- year-old Venus Williams might also battle it out at the $2.15-million tournament.
As the rankings stand, the field is formed from 9th to 19th ranked player while the final contestant is a wildcard.
No5 seed and Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open champion Jelena Jankovic is trying to make one final push to participate in Zhuhai. The former No1 opens against local wildcard Mandy Minella, with countrywoman and No2 seed Ana Ivanovic projected to meet her in the semifinal. Ivanovic's hopes for Singapore ended at the hands of Timea Bacsinszky in Beijing, but remains in the hunt for Zhuhai, as she will begin her tournament against WTA Rising Star Heather Watson.
The WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai will be staged five years to 2019.
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams, born on 17 June 1980, is a former World No1 and was ranked World No13 in singles as of 12 October 2015. She became the World No.1 for the first time on 25 February 2002, becoming the first African American woman to achieve this feat during the Open Era. She is credited as changing the women's game and ushering in a new, modern era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour. She is also regarded as the best grass court player of her generation and is widely considered as one of the all-time greats of women's tennis.
Williams has won four Olympic gold medals, one in singles and three in women's doubles. She and her sister Serena have won more Olympic gold medals than any other female tennis players. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Williams became only the second player to win Olympic gold medals in both singles and doubles at the same Olympic Games, after Helen Wills Moody in 1924.
Sara Errani
Italian Sara Errani was born on 29 April 1987. She became a professional player in 2002. Her highest career rank for singles was fifth. She has so far won six WTA champions for singles and now ranks 17th on the leaderboard.
As of 14 Sept 2015 she was the Italian No3 （out of five Italians in the top-100） and ranked world No.21 in singles and world No.29 in doubles. She has won eight career singles titles, and 25 career doubles titles, including five Grand Slam championships and five Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 titles.
Errani's breakthrough season occurred in 2012. At the Australian Open, she reached the quarterfinals in singles and was a finalist in doubles. Known as a clay-court specialist, Errani won three titles on clay going into the 2012 French Open, where she reached the finals in both the singles and doubles tournaments, winning the doubles title with partner Roberta Vinci. They also won the doubles titles at the 2012 US Open, and the 2013 and 2014 Australian Open. By winning the 2014 Wimbledon Women's Doubles title, Errani and Vinci became only the fifth pair in tennis history to complete a Career Grand Slam.
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki, born 11 July 1990, is one of the WTA's biggest stars. The Dane won the China Open by beating Vera Zvonareva in the final on 11 October 2010, and officially rose to No.1. She stayed there for 67 of 68 weeks until 30 January 2012 when Victoria Azarenka took the top spot. The only time in that span where Wozniacki wasn't No.1 was when Kim Clijsters took it for just the week of 14 February 2011 （the first mother in WTA rankings history to be No.1）. Wozniacki was the first woman from a Scandinavian country to hold the top ranking position and 20th overall.
From her WTA debut in 2005， she improved her year-end ranking each year until finishing on top in both 2010 and 2011. Wozniacki has won 23 WTA singles titles as of March 2015, three in 2008, three in 2009, six in 2010 （the most in a year by a WTA player from 2008-2011）, six in 2011， two in 2012,one in 2013, one in 2014 and one in 2015. She was runner-up at the 2009 and 2014 US Opens and the 2010 WTA Tour Championships in Doha to Kim Clijsters. She won the 2006 Wimbledon Girls' Singles title but has yet to win a women's Grand Slam title. She also holds two WTA titles in doubles.
Roberta Vinci
Italian tennis player Roberta Vinci was born 18 February 1983. As of 5 October 2015, Vinci was ranked World No.16 in singles and No.42 in doubles. Up until 6 April 2015, she held the position of World No.1 in doubles, whilst reaching a career-high of World No.11 in singles in June 2013.
She rose to worldwide prominence at the 2015 US Open， when she reached the semi-finals and defeated world number one Serena Williams in three sets, ending Williams's hopes of winning the Calendar Grand Slam, in what has been described by numerous commentators as one of the biggest shocks in tennis history. She went on to lose to Flavia Pennetta in the first ever all-Italian Grand Slam final.
Vinci has won 32 WTA Tour titles, nine in singles and 25 in doubles， including the 2012 French Open, the 2012 US Open, the 2013 Australian Open and 2014 Australian Open, and 2014 Wimbledon titles with regular partner Sara Errani. In doing so, they became only the fifth pair in tennis history to complete a Career Grand Slam.
Madison Keys
As of September 2015, Madison Keys,born 17 February 1995, was world No.19 in singles and the third-highest ranked American player overall. Since age 9, Keys has been part of the Chris Evert Academy in Boca Raton, Florida. She is one of the youngest players to win a match on the WTA Tour, at age 14 years and 48 days, by beating world No.81 Alla Kudryavtseva at the 2009 MPS Group Championships. Her highest junior ranking was No.16 on 12 September 2011.
On 21 June 2014, Keys won her first WTA Tour title, the Aegon International, a Premier event. On 2 February 2015, she entered the Top 20 for the first time, following her semifinal appearance at the Australian Open.
Elina Mykhaylivna Svitolina
Elina Mykhaylivna Svitolina, born 12 September 1994, is a professional Ukrainian tennis player. As of 5 October 2015,she was world No18 and is currently the highest-ranked Ukrainian.
Svitolina has three WTA titles to her name. She won her maiden title at the 2013 Baku Cup and successfully defended it in 2014. She then earned her first Top 10 career victory by defeating Petra Kvitová in Round 16 in Cincinnati. In 2015, she made her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the French Open where she lost to Ana Ivanovic. That same year， she also won her third WTA title in Marrakech.
The player field will also include Timea Baesinszky from Switzerland, Carla Suarez Navarro from Spain, Swedish Belinda Bencic, and Serbian Ana Ivanovic, according to wtatennis.com.
