Kontaveit, ranked 3rd in the world and seeded first for the competition, and Xiyu, ranked 58th, have never played each other before.

Veteran player and world number 32 will meet Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 19th in the world and seeded fifth for the contest, in her first round game. The pair have met once before, at Eastbourne in 2018, where the Latvian – who also won the event against Kontaveit in 2021 – was victorious.

Of Estonia' other two players, Elena Malõgina finds herself up against world number 14 Belinda Bencic (Switzerland), and Maileen Nuudi, making her WTA debut, will face Donna Vekic of Croatia (WTA 88).

Katriin Saar has to go through qualification and meets Anna-LenaFriedsam (Germany) Saturday.

The draw was conducted (see gallery) by tournament chief umpire Clare Wood, assisted by two other star players, Jil Teichmann (Switzerland) and Karolina Muchova (Czech Republic).

Tournament organizer Allar Hint stepped up to the plate to draw Kontaveit's opponent for her.

Should Kontaveit get through, she will meet the winner of Tereza Martincova (WTA 67th) and an as-yet unknown player who will have made it through qualification.

Qualification runs Saturday and Sunday, the main tournament at the FORUS tennis center in Tondi starts Monday and Kontaveit is first in action on the Tuesday. The final is to be played on October 2.

Other star player appearing in the singles are this year's Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan), Australian star Ajla Tomljanovic, and Shelby Rogers of the US player.

In addition to the 32 singles players competing in the main table, 16 doubles pairs will play.

The competition's official page is here.

Tallinn was first mentioned as a hosting a WTA250 event early on this year, following strong performances from both Kontaveit and Kanepi in the preceding season. That became a reality in summer.

Estonia has hosted second-tier ITF tournaments in the recent past.

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