Eight of the nine announced players are ranked in the top 50 of the current Women’s Tennis Association rankings.

CLEVELAND — The first nine players in the field for Cleveland’s professional women’s tennis tournament include two rising American stars and two players ranked in the world top 20.

Organizers for Tennis in the Land, a Women’s Tennis Association 250-level event set for its fifth year at Nautica Entertainment Complex in the Flats, announced the initial player commitments in a social media post Tuesday evening.

Eight of the nine announced players are ranked in the top 50 of the current WTA rankings, which were last updated Monday. 

With 32 singles entrants and 16 doubles pairings, the full field is far from set. Wildcard recipients and qualifiers will be forthcoming. Here are all the players we know to be participating in Tennis in the Land so far, along with their current ranking and nationality: 

Liudmila Samsonova – No. 16, RussiaClara Tauson – No. 19, DenmarkDayana Yastremska – No. 33, UkrainePeyton Stearns – No. 35, USAWang Xinyu – No. 40, ChinaAnastasia Potapova – No. 42, RussiaLois Boisson – No. 44, FranceHailey Baptiste – No. 50, USAEva Lys – No. 62, Germany

Included in the field are two top-20 players set to return to Cleveland after competing in last year’s tournament: Russian world No. 16 Liudmila Samsonova and Danish No. 19 Clara Tauson.

The field also features two 23-year-old Americans who have reached career-high rankings this season, including Ohio native and Tennis in the Land returnee Peyton Stearns. The Cincinnati-born Stearns, who reached the quarterfinals last year in Cleveland, recently earned the best tournament finish of her career at the Italian Open, a clay-court Roland Garros warmup where she fell to ninth-ranked Grand Slam champion Jasmine Paolini in the semifinal. 

Hailey Baptiste, the other announced American, reached her career-best ranking just last week after making the third round at Wimbledon. She played perhaps the most-hyped match of her career just on Tuesday, teaming up with 45-year-old legend Venus Williams for a doubles win in the opening round at her home tournament, the Citi Open in Washington, D.C.

Another up-and-comer whose inclusion in the tournament merits attention is France’s Lois Boisson, the world No. 44 who’s enjoying a torrid run of form this summer. Boisson backed up her first Grand Slam semifinal at Roland Garros last June with her first WTA title this past Sunday at the clay-court Hamburg Open in Germany.

Last year’s champion, American McCartney Kessler, has not yet been announced to return to the site of her maiden WTA title. Since winning last year’s Tennis in the Land as a 98th-ranked wildcard (her run was so unexpected that ahead of the final, the WTA was not prepared to list her height, hometown or dominant hand in the match notes provided to media), Kessler has rocketed to No. 31 in the rankings, winning two more 250-level championships at Nottingham and Hobart this season.Â