Pan Pacific Open: Pegula, Zheng Qinwen, Emma Navarro among the top stars in fray in Tokyo

Tokyo, Sep 27 (IANS) A top-class tough field including 14 of the world's Top 20 players are among the participants entered in next month's Toray Pan Pacific Open, one of the top events on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour which will be played in Tokyo, Japan. The prestigious outdoor hard-court tournament will be the final WTA 500 event of the year. A host of the WTA Tour's top players will go for big ranking points in one of the last opportunities to lock up a spot at the season-ending WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

Action at the Toray Pan Pacific Open begins on October 21, and the main-draw entry list was released this week with World No.3 Jessica Pegula the highest-ranked player to enter the fray. The event boasts former champions like Stefanie Graf, Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova.

After missing many events in the year's first half due to injury, Pegula surged back to the top of the game this summer, successfully defending her WTA 1000 title in Canada and reaching her first Grand Slam singles final at the US Open.

Pegula is followed on the entry list by World No.7 Zheng Qinwen, who has had a breakthrough summer of her own. Zheng toppled World No.1 Iga Swiatek en route to the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

World No.8 Emma Navarro, No.9 Danielle Collins and No.10 Barbora Krejcikova are the other top 10 players on the entry list. Krejcikova won her second Grand Slam singles title this year at Wimbledon.

The other Top 20 players on the main-draw entry list are Daria Kasatkina, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Anna Kalinskaya, Liudmila Samsonova (the 2022 champion), Diana Shnaider, Maria Sakkari, Marta Kostyuk, Paula Badosa and Donna Vekic.

Mirra Andreeva, Leylah Fernandez and 29th-ranked Elise Mertens complete the main-draw direct entries. The first main-draw alternate is World No.31 Magdalena Frech, who recently won her first WTA singles title at WTA 500 Guadalajara.

Also among the main draw alternates is defending champion Veronika Kudermetova, who beat Swiatek and Pegula en route to the trophy last year. Currently ranked No.39, Kudermetova is the fifth main-draw alternate.

The tournament also listed on its website that Japanese players Naomi Osaka and Moyuka Uchijima would receive wild cards into the player field on home soil.

Former World No.1 Osaka, currently ranked World No.73 in her first year back from maternity leave, won this title in 2019. Uchijima, the current Japanese No.1, made her Top 100 debut this year and is currently ranked World No.63.