Shanghai Tennis Team will sport seven athletes – three boys and four girls – in the Ballarat Open Gold AMT.

Competition will be strong but the team members will test their game in qualification rounds from Saturday morning.

The team arrived in Melbourne early last month in a bid to compete and converse with Australian players with similar ability.

Player manager Elizabeth Xue Bai said this AMT meet at Ballarat Regional Tennis Centre looked a good fit, and was not too far from the team’s Melbourne base.

“Our training and life experience are great so far. The kids are learning new things near every day,” Xue Bai said.

“We hope the players gain some experiences from the upcoming matches against adult players, especially to try to integrate strategy and tactics into the games.

Promising Ballarat juniors Emily Tinker, 13, Ryan Bolton, 16, and Nick Powell, 18, will also test their games in qualification rounds.

Leading Ballarat tennis player Zoe Hives will start her Ballarat Open Gold campaign in the second round of the women’s single main draw on Sunday.

Hives is seeded fourth in the women’s singles and number one with New South Wales’ Katherine Westbury in the women’s doubles.

Viktorija Rajicic – runner-up to Wimbledon doubles champion Su-Wei Hsieh in the tournament last summer – is the top seed in the women’s singles.

Daniel Byrnes is the one to beat in the men’s singles.

Byrnes finished runner-up in the tournament last summer and caused a stir when he knocked fancied Frenchman Vincent Stouff out of the semi-finals.

melanie.whelan@fairfaxmedia.com.au

SEEDED ENTRIES

MEN’S SINGLES

1: Daniel Byrnes

2: Aaron Leeder-Chard

3: Daniel Ferretti

4: Paul Kramberger

5: Jeremy Beale

6: Cody Brackenreg

7: Chanchai Sookton-Eng

8: Joshua Boots

WOMEN’S SINGLES

1: Viktorija Rajicic

2: Katherine Westbury

3: Nives Baric

4: Zoe Hives

5: Maree Teiwa Casey

6: Georgiana Ruhrig

7: Monika Rajicic

8: Katerina Valos

MEN’S DOUBLES

1: Jeremy Beale/Chanchai Sookton-Eng

2: Joshua Boots/ Paul Kramberger

3: Marlino Pascual jnr/Marshall Street

4: Radomir Jovanovic/William Ma

5: Daniel Ferretti/Stephen Hoh

6: Cody Brackenreg/Thomas Paterson

7: Jonathan Babich/Caleb Boland

8: Daniel Byrnes/Patrick Fitzgerald

WOMEN’S DOUBLES

1: Zoe Hives/Katherine Westbury

2: Monika Rajicic/Viktorija Rajicic

3: Jessica Brzozowska/Megan Kauffman

4: Chanel Dimos/Bianca Duff