Zhuhai Ready for the Inaugural WTA Elite Trophy as Countdown reaches 100 days

The first edition of WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, to be presented on November 2, 2015, held a press conference on the progress of the tennis event.

"Zhuhai is ready!" said Peter Johnston, Tournament Director of the year-end WTA event.

"It is an exciting time as we are now 100 days away from the first WTA Elite Trophy, which will showcase the best of the beautiful city of Zhuhai and the best of women's tennis."

The construction of the stadium is progressing as scheduled and will be fully completed by mid September. An ITF challenger event will be held in the week of September 27 to fully test the event and team as they prepare for the inaugural event at the end of the season, according to Johnston.

The selection of ball kids and volunteers will be concluded after an intensive week-long clinic in August.

There will be 30 ball kids aged from 10-15 years old and almost 400 college volunteers to serve the event, he added.

Mrs. Mellisa Pine, Vice President of WTA Asia Pacific expressed her gratitude for the preparation work by the local Zhuhai team. "Quote," stated Mrs. Pine.

The tournament will be staged at a custom designed, state-of-the-art tennis center in Zhuhai, and will feature a 12-player singles field consisting of players ranked No.9 through 19 in the world, along with one wildcard in a four-group round-robin format. The winners of each respective group will advance to the semi final stage of the event. The final winner of the singles event will receive 700 WTA Ranking points. Meanwhile, the six-team doubles field will compete in a two-group round robin with the winner of each group advancing to the final.

Aiming at further promoting tennis and based on the uncertainty of the player eligibility, Zhuhai WTA Elite Trophy is planning a promotion campaign for fans to predict the final player field, which will be announced later next month, with quantitative prizes for winners.

"Our global audience will be able to follow who will qualify each week through the Shine in Zhuhai leaderboard, which will appear on the WTA global and Chinese websites and our own promotions," Johnston says.

The tournament also announced secured sponsorships from international brands and local companies, including PEAK, USANA, U-CAR, BABOLAT, PRINCE, Liri Tent Technology, Retop,TSINGTAO and Gateway.

The event will be broadcast to over 160 nations worldwide.

Zhuhai is located on the southern coast of China and was named "China's most livable city" by the Chinese Academy of Social Services last year.

The first phase of the stadium will feature a 5,000 seat covered center court, a 1,500 seat court, 4 show courts and a total of 12 hard courts.