Nanjing, China, 18 October 2012 | Tennis Australia

The Asia Pacific Australian Open Wildcard Play-off main draw ceremony was conducted in Nanjing, China on Wednesday, offering some intruing match-ups as players battle for a main draw wildcard into Australian Open 2013.

The men’s main draw is headed by top seed Yuichi Sugita of Japan and No.2 seed Jimmy Wang of Taiwan, both of whom receive byes into the second round of the 16-player draw.

Third seed Danai Udomchoke of Thailand and No.4 seed Ze Zhang – who recently enjoyed a breakout performance at his home event at the China Open in Beijing with a win over world No.11 Richard Gasquet – will take on qualifiers Mao-Xin Gong and Sanam Singh respectively. 

The qualifying competition concluded at the Nanjing Sports Institute on Wednesday, with Singh and Gong – the top two seeds in qualifying – progressing to the main draw in vastly different circumstances.

Singh, who once played college tennis for the University of Virginia, battled for three sets before finally subduing Yuqing Ning of China, while Gong progressed after Chinese compatriot Xiao Qi retired in the second set.

The women’s main draw is lead by No.1 seed Kai-Chen Chang, the Taiwanese talent who upset Sam Stosur on her way last week’s WTA Osaka final.

The second seed is China’s Qiang Wang, currently ranked world No.177. Like the men’s draw, the top two women’s seeds receive a first round bye.

The top two seeds in women’s qualifying, China’s Ya Fan Wang and Yuxuan Zhang, both advanced to the main draw on Wednesday with straight set wins in Nanjing.

The women’s seeds are rounded out by aggressive baseliner Laksika Kumkhum (No.3) from Thailand and fourth seed Yimiao Zhou of China.

Main draw action will commence on Thursday.