The first three tournaments of the upcoming 2016 WTA season – Brisbane, Shenzhen and Auckland – have announced the top players that will be playing their events, and oh what a Week 1 it’ll be.

The Brisbane International, a Premier-level event, will host four of the world’s Top 10 players – Simona Halep (No.2), Garbiñe Muguruza (No.3), Maria Sharapova (No.4) and Angelique Kerber (No.10) – as well as a slew of other Top 20 players in Timea Bacsinszky, Carla Suárez Navarro, Belinda Bencic, Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani. Jelena Jankovic and Victoria Azarenka are also among the line-up.

“With just under 40 days to go until play starts at Queensland Tennis Centre tickets are in hot demand,” Cameron Pearson, the Tournament Director for the Brisbane International, said of the news.

“I encourage all fans to book their seats early and join in the excitement of the event.”

The Shenzhen Open, an International-level event that boasts an elevated $500,000 in prize money, announced the first three players of its field on Wednesday and two Top 10 stars are among them – Agnieszka Radwanska (No.5) and Petra Kvitova (No.6). Radwanska and Kvitova were the last two standing at the WTA Finals, with Radwanska edging Kvitova for the biggest title of her career.

Eugenie Bouchard, a former Top 5 player, was the third player announced by the tournament.

“I am very happy to be coming back to Shenzhen,” Kvitova said. “Last year I had a very nice time, everyone was very kind and it was also very nice to see my good friend Li Na when I was there. I look forward to playing there again, to seeing Li Na again and I hope I can win the tournament this time.”

The ASB Classic, another International-level event, will have arguably the hottest player of the fall season – Venus Williams – as its top seed. Williams won her two biggest titles in more than five years during the Asian swing in 2015, at Wuhan and Zhuhai, and burst back into the Top 10 on the year-end rankings on November 9 – it was the former World No.1’s first time in the Top 10 since 2011.

It doesn’t end there, either – two more former No.1s, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki, and two-time Grand Slam champion and former No.2 Svetlana Kuznetsova will also be headed to Auckland.

“It’s amazing. Three former World No.1s, three Grand Slam champions and two former winners in one year is an incredible result. Our strongest yet,” Tournament Director Karl Budge said of the field.

For more information on Wednesday’s field announcements, visit the three tournaments’ official websites – Brisbane, Shenzhen and Auckland. And stay tuned on wtatennis.com for all the latest too!