By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday October 24, 2023
Chinese wild card Lin Zhu upset Veronika Kudermetova for her fifth Top-20 win of 2023.
Photo Source: WTA Elite Trophy
China’s Lin Zhu may be the lowest-ranked competitor at this year’s WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to be a pushover.
The World No.37 strutted her stuff in the first night session of this year’s event, notching her fifth Top-20 win of the season with a 7-6(5), 6-1 victory over 16th-ranked Veronika Kudermetova.
Zhu, one of two Chinese players benefitting from home cooking this week in Zhuhai, improves to 28-22 on the season and moves to the top of the Rose Group standings.
Barbora Krejcikova, who defeated Magda Linette 6-2, 6-4, and Beatriz Haddad Maia, who topped Madison Keys 6-4, 6-4, also moved to the top of their respective groups.
The 12-player field (six doubles teams) are competing for $2.4 million dollars in Zhuhai this year, as the event is being held for the first time since Aryna Sabalenka raised the trophy in 2019.
See the current up to date Zhuhai standings here
Each round robin win nets a player 80 rankings points and each group winner will secure $220,000 in prize money. There are four groups of three – Azalea, Camellia, Orchid and Rose – with the winners of each group coming through to knockout semifinals later this week.