At the US$220,000 Guangzhou International Women's Open 2009, Hong Kong's Zhang Ling (WTA 371) won through three rounds of qualifying, which culminated with a 6-1, 6-4, win over Zhang Shuai (WTA 208), to reach the maindraw of the women's singles in a WTA Tour level event for the first time in her career.

She will next face the Slovak Republic's Lenka Wienerova (WTA 144) in the opening round of the maindraw, scheduled as the second match on at no earlier than 2pm on Tuesday (Sep 15) afternoon.

Zhang Ling is also this month's featured player on the ITF Women's Circuit. Read all about it here.

The top-8 seeds in Guangzhou this week are (brackets denote WTA Rankings):

1. Anabel Medina Garrigues (WTA 21)
2. Zheng Jie (22) -- withdrawn injured
3. Peng Zhuai (44)
4. Katarina Srebotnik
5. Shahar Peer (64)
6. Olga Govortsova (65)
7. Ayumi Morita (69)
8. Alberta Brianti (85)

Other notable competitors in Guangzhou include former WTA No. 4 Kimiko Date, Taiwan's Chan Yung-Jan and Hsieh Su-Wei, and Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova.

This year's tournament also marks the official opening of the brand new Guangzhou International Tennis Centre, which sports a capacity of around 5000 spectators.

Located in the middle of the Guangzhou Technology City, the tennis centre is the largest of its kind in South China. It was designed with three main objectives in mind: fit international standards, eco-friendly and pleasant surroundings.

However, the Guangzhou International Tennis Centre will not be the venue for tennis events at the 2010 Asian Games. According to Gary Au-Yeung, who is the Referee for this week's Guangzhou Open, another tennis centre with around 10000 seats capacity is being built about 3 km from this centre for the Asian Games instead.

Last year's Guangzhou Open was held at the Tianhe Sports Centre where Peng Shuai finished runner-up to Russia's Vera Zvonareva following a 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-2, loss in the title decider.

Current Chinese number one, Li Na (WTA 19), won the inaugural Guangzhou Open in 2004. That year, the doubles title went to Athens Olympics gold medalists, Li Ting and Sun Tian-Tian.

Results
US$220,000 Guangzhou International Women's Open 2009
Guangzhou International Tennis Centre, China
Sep 12-20, 2009

WOMEN'S SINGLES QUALIFYING

First Round
Zhang Ling (HKG) d. (1)Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) 7-5 6-2
Ahsha Rolle (USA) d. Jessica Yang (HKG) 6-4 6-4

Second Round
Zhang Ling (HKG) d. Qiu Si-Si (CHN) 5-7 6-3 6-1

Third Round
Zhang Ling (HKG) d. (5)Zhang Shuai (CHN) 6-1 6-4