Stars party in Zhuhai for the WTA Elite Trophy event

Even though the WTA Finals in Singapore just finished, for some players things are only getting started. In Zhuhai, China, the WTA Elite Trophy event is beginning and a collection of WTA stars gathered at the player party to kick off the secondary year-end tournament

It's not as prestigious as the aforementioned finals, but it's still very important for the players who qualify since it can boost their rankings ahead of the 2017 season.

Johanna Konta (who narrowly missed out on qualifying for Singapore), Petra Kvitova and Roberta Vinci, are some of players who made the cut, along with Barbora Strycova, Elina Svitolina, Timea Babos, Timea Bacsinszky, Kiki Bertens, Caroline Garcia, Samantha Stosur, Elena Vesnina and wildcard Shuai Zhang. (Carla Suarez Navarro withdrew with a wrist injury).

The structure of the tournament is very similar to that of the WTA Finals, with 12 players being split into four groups of three. The overall winner from each group moves on to the semifinals.

Venus Williams, who was the champion last year, did not return to defend her title.

Day 1 results on Tuesday saw Strycova defeat Vinci, 6-4, 6-3, Svitolina overcome Bertens, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 and Zhang stun Bacsinszky, 6-1, 6-1