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First taking place in 2016, the Chengdu Open enters its third edition in 2018 comprising of seven players from the Top 50. Last year, Marcos Baghdatis had to retire in the final against Denis Istomin who was leading 3-2 in the first set. A year earlier, Karen Khachanov defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the final of the inaugural event to win his first ever ATP World Tour title. Surprisingly, only one of the four finalists from the first two editions feature in the 2018 edition. Here is how the draw looks:

Top Half: Fognini, Basilashvili, Sandgren, Ebden

Top seed Fabio Fognini awaits the winner of Mischa Zverev and Rubel Bemelmans. The latter has won both their previous meetings. Fognini's compatriot, Matteo Berrettini will face India's Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the first round. The winner will face the winner of Evgeny Donskoy and sixth seed Matt Ebden. Ebden has lost to Donskoy twice before but none of the meetings were in the main draw of a tour level event. 

Sam Querrey will look forward to equalize his rivalry against Argentina's Guido Pella when they meet for the fourth time in their career. Pella suffered an early second round exit last week at St. Petersburg. The winner will face third seed Nikoloz Basilashvili in the next round. American No.8 Taylor Fritz will take on wildcard entrant Chun Hsin Teng in the first round. The winner will face the victor of the match between Mikhail Kukushkin and Tennys Sandgren. Kukushkin won their only meeting at the first round of the 2017 French Open.

Probable semi-finals: Fognini vs Pella

Bottom Half: Chung, Mannarino, Monfils, Sousa

Seeded second, Hyeon Chung will play his first ever match at the Chengdu Open where he awaits the winner of Felix Auger-Aliassime and wildcard entrant Yibing Wu in the first round. After winning the Challenger event at Kaohsiung, Monfils is the fifth seed at Chengdu and will face South Africa's Lloyd Harris in the first round. Bradley Klahn and Bernard Tomic have some unfinished business to attend to after Tomic was forced to retire mid-match during their first meeting at Toronto. Monfils can face Chung for the second time in his career in the quarter-finals if both players manage to get past the initial rounds. Chung won their first meeting at Munich in 2017. 

Last year's runner-up Marcos Baghdatis faces Malek Jaziri in the first round. Baghdatis will play his first match since the US Open and it will be his first meeting with the Tunisian. The winner will face fourth seed Adrian Mannarino in the second round. Joao Sousa won his first meeting against Tim Smyczek in the first round of the qualifying draw at Cincinnati last year. This year, they meet for the first time in the main draw. The winner will face Radu Albot or Vasek Pospisil in the next round. Albot enters Chengdu after a successful week at Metz where he reached the semi-finals and lost to eventual champion Gilles Simon.

Probable semi-finals: Sousa vs Monfils