Guangzhou 2026 Preview: WTA 250 Draw, Seeds and First-Round Odds

Defending champion absent from the draw

Ann Li beat Lulu Sun 7-6(6) 6-2 in the Guangzhou 2025 final. The 2025 champion is not in the 2026 draw.

Sofia Kenin is the one former Guangzhou champion in the field, with one title. She enters as a wild card.

The archive holds 22 finals of the tournament up to 2025. Shuai Zhang has the most titles among them, 3.

Format and seeds

Guangzhou 2026 is a WTA 250 tournament on hard courts, with 32 players in the singles main draw so far. Play began on 24 October 2026.

Daria Snigur is seeded 1 and ranked No. 40 with 1,280 points in the WTA ranking of 26 October 2026. Janice Tjen is seeded 2 at No. 47 with 1,120 points, and Lanlana Tararudee is seeded 3 at No. 57 with 1,083 points.

Lilli Tagger is seeded 4 and ranked No. 53 with 1,091 points. Paula Badosa is seeded 5 at No. 61 with 1,023 points, and Zeynep Sonmez is seeded 6 at No. 64 with 987 points.

Maria Timofeeva is seeded 7 at No. 72 with 931 points. Katie Volynets is seeded 8 at No. 81 with 874 points.

Wild cards and qualifiers

The wild cards are Han Shi, Xinran Sun, Venus Williams and Sofia Kenin. The qualifiers are Teodora Kostovic, Alevtina Ibragimova, Carol Young Suh Lee, Harriet Dart, Tatiana Prozorova and Dayana Yastremska.

Seeds in first-round action

Lilli Tagger plays Venus Williams, and the betting market makes Tagger a 91% favourite. The two have never met in the match records.

Paula Badosa faces qualifier Carol Young Suh Lee, with the betting market giving Badosa 68%. They have never met.

Janice Tjen meets Polina Kudermetova and is a 60% favourite in the betting market. They have no previous meeting in the records.

Lanlana Tararudee plays Katerina Siniakova, who is a 68% favourite in the betting market. Siniakova leads the head-to-head 1-0.

Zeynep Sonmez faces Sara Sorribes Tormo, and the betting market makes Sonmez a 67% favourite. Sorribes Tormo leads the head-to-head 1-0.

Katie Volynets plays qualifier Dayana Yastremska, with the betting market giving Volynets 58%. The head-to-head is level at 1-1.

Closest matches on the board

Simona Waltert plays Jil Teichmann, and the betting market sees it as close to even: Simona Waltert 53%, Jil Teichmann 47%. Teichmann leads the head-to-head 3-1.

Kaitlin Quevedo plays wild card Sofia Kenin, with the betting market at Kaitlin Quevedo 51% and Sofia Kenin 49%. They have never met.

Anastasia Zakharova and Magda Linette are also close in the betting market, at Magda Linette 52% and Anastasia Zakharova 48%. They have never met.

Harriet Dart and Tatiana Prozorova, both qualifiers, have not met before, and the betting market makes Prozorova a 54% favourite. In another first-round match, Claire Liu is a 53% favourite against Antonia Ruzic, who has also not played her before.