Organisers on Tuesday confirmed that four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka will compete in the Hong Kong Open tennis championships later in October. Osaka, who won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021 and the US Open in 2018 and 2020, is the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam and the first player from Asia to hold the singles' top ranking, claiming the World No. 1 spot in January 2019, which she held for 21 weeks. She will be joined by Russia's Diana Shnaider and Anastasia Potapova, who is ranked 37th in the world. Twenty-year-old Shnaider is the youngest player currently ranked in the world's top 16, and has won three titles this year. At the 2024 Olympic Games, she partnered with Mirra Andreeva to capture the silver medal in the women's doubles. Other international stars already confirmed to compete in the event include defending champion Leylah Fernandez of Canada, two-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 Simona Halep of Romania and Britain's highest-ranked player Katie Boulter. China's Paris Olympic mixed doubles silver medalist Wang Xinyu, and rising stars Yuan Yue and Wang Xiyu will also feature in the field competing for a total prize purse worth US$250,000. (Xinhua)
