Nanchang, China (July 21)
Suzhou, China (September 1)
Ningbo, China (October 27)
Taipei, Chinese Taipei (November 3)
Limoges, France (November 3)
Raanana, Israel (November 10)
It really does seem all of the Chinese 125Ks are placed deliberately to discourage Westerners from entering. There does seem to be a very blatant attempt going on to make it as easy as possible for the Chinese players to build their rankings against the rest of the field.
I've thought it for a while, but this convinces me more. It just looks so blatant that the WTA are trying to boost the ranking of Asian players. Especially with the new ranking system, winning one of these will be very beneficial.
In fairness, the WTA would probably be bankrupt without tournaments in Asia and especially China. Young players from around the world should be able to easily adapt to the different conditions (humidity with terrible air quality). Not sure it's a good place for Kvitova to play good tennis.
I don't think even WTA themselves call WTA 125 events as tour events (that means Mladenovic still hasn't won a career title marked according to her WTA profile). So it's all good for everyone. Asian countries can have their own tournaments regardless, players can play and gain experience playing against players ranked from 100 to 250. Not too bad.
7.21-27, Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi provice, eastern China.
9.1-7, 2nd week of US Open, Suzhou, a city of Anhui provice but not Jiangsu, eastern China.
10.27-11.2, ningbo, a city of Zhejiang provice, eastern China.
Truly hope Taipei stops hosting 125K after this year. ITFs are much better in terms of entry lists if the WTA can't even manage an international for Taipei while there are so many for Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Tianjin.
A little bit off topic but are there any court pictures of Suzhou and Ningbo (from livestream or anything, quality not important)? I need it to make courts of them for Tennis Elbow game. http://www.managames.com/Forum/topic29-15218.php?start=30
Thank you Meelis! Suzhou is great to make court from it! It would be awesome if there is similar Ningbo picture (it is not important if players are on it or something, bad quality, just that perspective)