The Guangzhou Open is an outdoor hard-court WTA 250 event. This event takes place at the Nansha International Tennis Center in China. Often, it is called the Galaxy Holding Group Guangzhou Open due to sponsorship agreements.
The first-ever Guangzhou Open took place in 2004, and it has remained on the WTA tour ever since. However, the event had a brief three-year break between 2020 and 2022 following the Peng Shuai controversy and the outbreak of Covid-19 in China.
As a WTA 250 competition, the Guangzhou Open has a singles and doubles draw. In the singles main draw, 32 players compete for the title in a knockout competition. The doubles is contested by 16 teams of two players.
Since launching in 2004, several Chinese players have succeeded in the singles draw. Li Na was the first-ever tournament winner in 2004 and four more Chinese competitors have won the competition since then. Yan Zi (2005), Wang Qiang (2018), and Wang Xiyu (2023) are among the previous home players to win.
However, Zhang Shuai has the record for the most Guangzhou Open title wins. She won her first tournament in 2013 before succeeding again in 2017. Other notable players to win the Guangzhou Open include former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who lifted the title in 2019.
Former world number one and now-retired Serbian player Jelena Jankovic also won the competition in 2015. Like the previous singles winners, many Chinese players have won the doubles competition since 2004.
The all-Chinese doubles team of Sun Tiantian and Li Ting won two titles in 2004 and 2006. However, their compatriot Peng Shuai has the record for most Guangzhou Open doubles title wins. She has won the competition four times between 2007 and 2019.
