Two Chinese players, No. 5 seed Zheng Qinwen and No. 30 seed Yuan Yue, received byes in the women's singles first round at the China Open, according to the draw results released on Monday.

Zheng is in the same section as the seeded trio of No. 9 Daria Kasatkina and No. 19 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, as well as No. 25 Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine. Yuan will compete in the same section as No. 7 Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, No. 11 Liudmila Samsonova of Russia and No. 24 Elise Mertens of Belgium.

Both Zheng and Yuan are in the same half of the draw as No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and No. 3 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy. Wang Yafan, Gao Xinyu and Wei Sijia of China are in Sabalenka's section, while fellow home players Shi Han, Ma Yexin and Wang Xiyu are in the same section as Paolini.

Eighth-seeded Jeļena Ostapenko of Latvia, second-seeded Jessica Pegula, fourth-seeded Coco Gauff and sixth-seeded Emma Navarro of the USA are all in the other half of the bracket. China's Wang Xinyu is in Pegula's section, while Wang Qiang and Zhang Shuai are in the same section as Navarro.

Defending champion Iga Swiatek withdrew from the China Open. Poland's World No. 1 defeated Samsonova to lift the trophy last year. World No. 4 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan is skipping the tournament as well.

This year's China Open will begin on Wednesday, September 25, and end on Sunday, October 6.