Korean star Hyeon Chung will begin his path back towards Melbourne Park after being announced as one of the competitors at this year’s AO Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off.
The Play-off, scheduled for 25-30 November in Chengdu, China, comprises 16-player men’s and women’s singles events – plus eight-player men’s and women’s qualifying draws – and 12-team men’s and women’s doubles events.
You can watch the final two days of the action, on 29 and 30 November, through the Australian Open YouTube channel.
Chung’s appearance at the Sichuan International Tennis Centre will be a rare outing for the 28-year-old, who has played just seven matches this season, and none at tour-level.
More than six years ago he stunned Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic at Australian Open 2018 en route to his first major semifinal – the best performance by a Korean player in Grand Slam singles history.
Shortly after he peaked at world No.19, but since then he has been beset by injuries.
At one stage he missed two-and-a-half years of competition due to a back injury, including the entire 2021 and 2022 seasons, and has played just 20 total matches since the beginning of 2020.
Currently ranked outside the top 1000, Chung will compete in Chengdu thanks to a wildcard entry. He is among 11 players currently confirmed for the tournament; leading the field is Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki, who holds a protected ranking of world No.136.
Zhang Shuai is the biggest name in the women’s field, along with former world No.31 Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan.
Zhang will also open season 2025 at the United Cup, representing Team China in Perth.
One year after Chung’s run at Australian Open 2018, Zhang won the women’s doubles crown at Melbourne Park in an emotional triumph alongside Australian favourite Sam Stosur.
Zhang has excelled in singles, too, reaching two major quarterfinals – Australian Open 2016, and in 2019 at Wimbledon – and rising as high as world No.22.
After enduring a lengthy losing streak in singles, Zhang ended it resoundingly two months ago on home soil at the WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing. There she powered into the quarterfinals, more than halving her ranking as a result.
A triumph at the wildcard play-off in Chengdu would see Zhang return to Australian Open singles action for the first time since 2023, when she reached the fourth round.
Zhang is one of 12 players so far confirmed for the women’s singles event. Diyas, who has twice reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, enters using her protected ranking of world No.157.
The men’s doubles entry list is headed by Indian duo Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth, both of whom held top-100 ATP doubles rankings at the time of entry.
In women’s doubles, Peangtarn Plipech and Tsao Chia Yi, of Thailand and Chinese Taipei respectively, lead the entry list.
Former winners of the AO Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off singles events include Yoshihito Nishioka, Denis Istomin, Wang Xinyu, Soon-woo Kwon and Tatsuma Ito.