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WTA Finals draw: Ashleigh Barty in group with Naomi Osaka, Petra Kvitova and Belinda Bencic

Friday 25 October 2019 17:03, UK

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, Naomi Osaka of Japan, Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, Ashleigh Barty of Australia, Simona Halep of Romania, Bianca Andreescu of Canada, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic pose for a selfie ahead of the 2019 WTA Finals at Lotus Hill Park on October 25, 2019 in Shenzhen, China.
Image: Petra Kvitova, Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina, Ashleigh Barty, Simona Halep, Bianca Andreescu, Belinda Bencic and Karolina Pliskova are set for the WTA Finals

This year's four Grand Slam champions were split evenly amongst the two groups after the draw was made for the WTA Finals in Shenzhen.

Top seed and French Open champion Ashleigh Barty headlines the Red Group, and is joined by Australian Open winner Naomi Osaka, Czech big-hitter Petra Kvitova and Swiss star Belinda Bencic.

"I'm really excited to be here to play singles for the first time. I have played doubles here a couple of times before," Barty said.

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"I've played Naomi and Petra recently in Beijing. [I'm] looking forward to playing Belinda, I don't think I've actually every played her before. It's a really exciting group."

Osaka said: "For me, I've played everyone in my group already this year. I'm super excited to get a couple rematches in. I don't know, for me this is my second time playing the Finals, so I'm really happy that I was able to come here."

I'm super excited to get a couple rematches in.
Naomi Osaka

World No 2 Karolina Pliskova, the tour leader with four singles titles this year, tops the Purple Group, drawn with US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, Wimbledon winner Simona Halep and defending champion Elina Svitolina.

Champion Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine poses with the Billie Jean King trophy after her victory against Sloane Stephens of the United States in the final of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global at the National Gallery on October 29, 2018 in Singapore.
Image: Elina Svitolina will defend her title in Shenzhen

"There is [no] easy draws here in the Finals. For sure it's lots of exciting matches," Svitolina said.

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"For me, as last year, I'll just try to take one match at a time. I don't look too far ahead. I try to stay really focused on the upcoming match, and that's the way I will try to do it."

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