The inaugural edition of the ATP 250 Chengdu Open is set to commence tomorrow with all eight first round qualifying matches being played from 1pm onwards at the Sichuan Tennis International Centre here in the Shuangliu district of Chengdu.

Top seed in qualifying is exciting American youngster Jared Donaldson, who takes on 31-year-old ATP World Tour veteran Marinko Matosevic. The 19-year-old Donaldson enjoyed an impressive run into the third round of last month’s US Open, defeating David Goffin and Viktor Troicki en route.

The number two seed is 37-year-old former world No.8 Radek Stepanak of the Czech Republic, who takes on Japan’s Takuto Niki, while third seed Vasek Pospisil of Canada meets Korean Soon Woo Kwon.

The 26-year-old Pospisil has endured a year of mixed results – he has enjoyed much success when playing doubles (winning Rotterdam w/Nicolas Mahut and making the finals at both the Indian Wells and Rome masters) but has struggled when playing singles. The former world No.25 will hope to boost his dwindling singles rank (currently No. 116) with a strong run in Chengdu.

Chengdu locals will be especially interested to see how the two local wild cards, Wang Chuhan and Zhong Su Hao, fare in their qualifying matches.

The in-form 24-year-old Wang Chuhan has made six quarterfinals and three semifinals on the ITF Futures Tour this year and will test his mettle against fifth seeded Japanese Go Soeda.

Promising 19-year-old youngster Zhong Su Hao, who has picked up three ITF Futures match victories so far this year, will face eighth seed Matteo Donati from Italy.

Four matches each will be played on the Stadium Court and Court 1 tomorrow, with Stepanek vs Niki kicking things off at 1pm on Stadium Court, and the all Japanese encounter between seventh seed Hiroki Moriya and Shuichi Sekiguchi commencing matters on Court 1, also at 1pm.

The official main draw ceremony will also be held in the stadium tomorrow from 3.00pm onwards and is set to produce a number of intriguing matchups with a clutch of players coming into the tournament on the back of strong outings.
The top seeded players (and their current ATP Tour ranking) in the Chengdu Open singles main draw are Dominic Thiem (No.10), Nick Kyrgios (No.16), Grigor Dimitrov (No.21), Feliciano Lopez (No.26), Albert Ramos-Vinolas (No.32), Viktor Troicki (No.33), Joao Sousa (No.34) and Paolo Lorenzi (No.35).