10 players from Chinese mainland, three men and seven women, will participate in the singles competitions at the Australian Open, setting a new record.

Veteran Zhang Shuai, 33, is the women's singles No. 23 seed and she will face Patricia Maria Tig from Romania in the first round. Zhang’s best record at the Australian Open was reaching the quarterfinals in 2016.

Young Chinese ace, 20-year-old Zheng Qinwen is listed as the No. 29 seed for the women's singles competitions. She will play Dalma Galfi of Hungary in the first round. Zheng Qinwen appeared in the Australian Open (and in the Grand Slam tournament) for the first time last year and she made the second round.

Wang Xinyu and Wang Xiyu, both 21, will face Australia's Storm Hunter and the Czech Republic's No. 30 seed Karolina Pliskova in the first round. Both Wang Xinyu and Wang Xiyu advanced to the second round in the tournament in 2022.

Zheng Saisai and Zhu Lin, both 28, made it back to the Australian Open after missing it last year. Their best record was reaching the second round. Zheng Saisai will challenge the No. 27 seed, Irina-Camelia Begu from Romania; Zhu Lin will play Rebecca Marino of Canada.

Yuan Yue, 24, will make her Australian Open debut this year and face the No. 6 seed Maria Sakkari from Greece in the first round. Yuan appeared in the Wimbledon and U.S. Open before and her best record was advancing to the third round in the U.S. Open in 2022.

In the men's singles competitions, Zhang Zhizhen, Wu Yibing and Shang Juncheng will all begin their first tour in the Australian Open this time. 26-year-old Zhang, who has the best Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world ranking of No. 97 among the three, will face Ben Shelton of the U.S. in the first round.

Wu, 23, who advanced to the third round in the U.S. Open in 2022, will play Corentin Moutet of France in the first-round match.

Shang, 17, is the youngest of the three, and will challenge Oscar Otte of Germany in the first Grand Slam match of his career.

As the men's singles reigning champion and the No. 1 seed of this year's Australian Open, Rafael Nadal of Spain will play Jack Draper of Britain in the first round. Nadal's first major challenge may be the No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia in the quarterfinals. The last time the two met was in the tournament's final last year.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia, as the No. 4 seed, is in the other half of the bracket. He will play Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain in his first match and won't meet Nadal unless both make the final.

Iga Swiatek of Poland, the No. 1 seed of the women's singles competitions, will play Jule Niemeier of Germany in her first match at the Australian Open this year. She won the French Open and U.S. Open titles and reached the semifinals at Melbourne Park in 2022

This year's Australian Open will take place at Melbourne Park between January 16 and 29.

(Cover photo: Zheng Qinwen of China competes in the women's singles match against Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic at Adelaide International at Memorial Drive in Adelaide, Australia, January 11, 2023. /CFP)