Week #39 preview: Beijing, Seoul

Beijing (CHN), Tier II, $600,000
After the Summer olympics, tennis comes back to Beijing with this Tier II which will feature a great field including 6 Top Ten players and 17 of the 30 best players. Serbian WTA #2 Jelena Jankovic and WTA #3 Ana Ivanovic and Russian WTA #5 Dinara Safina and WTA #7 Svetlana Kuznetsova, who were the finalists last week in Tokyo, are the top seeds. But there are a lot of names that should be taken into account: Guangzhou champion Vera Zvonareva, Tokyo semifinalist Katarina Srebotnik, youngsters Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki, Alize Cornet and Dominika Cibulkova and local favourites Na Li, Jie Zheng, Shuai Peng and Zi Yan could well provide more than one upset.

Seoul (KOR), Tier IV, $145,000
Russian Maria Kirilenko and Israeli Shahar Peer are the top seeds and main favourites for the title in this Tier IV in Korea. But they will have to beat very dangerous opponents such as Kaia Kanepi, Yung-Jan Chan, Lucie Safarova, Samantha Stosur, Camille Pin, Vera Dushevina or Bali runner-up Tamira Paszek. And it will be also a good chance to see the evolution of young talents such as Carla Suarez, Yanina Wickmayer, Sabine Lisicki, Marina Erakovic, or junior sensation Arantxa Rus.