Third ranked Melissa Reid

South African Pace has already won three times this season, at the Deutsche Bank Ladies’ Swiss Open, S4C Wales Ladies Championship of Europe and Finnair Masters.

She is desperate to regain the number one spot after Davies overtook her with her fourth victory of the season at the Open de Espana Femenino.

Reid, the Turkish Airlines Ladies Open winner from England, is also keen to take the moniker as Europe’s best player, having briefly held the position earlier this season and she would also relish the accompanying 10 year exemption to the Ladies European Tour.

Australia’s Karen Lunn

Currently ranked 20th on the Henderson Money List, Lunn added: “The end of the season was a little disappointing to be honest so I am looking forward to finding the form that I had early in the year. I played some of the best golf of my life early on. It was hugely disappointing to play so poorly at Evian and the British but that is golf and in hindsight after I won in Portugal my expectations changed a little and I probably put too much pressure on myself.”

German-born English player, Florentyna Parker, who won her maiden title at the ABN AMRO Ladies Open in the Netherlands, was also looking forward to returning to China after visiting in 2009.

She said: “It will be nice to be able to play in warmer weather and see some friends again. I decided to play because I like Shanghai; also I didn’t want to have a big break leading up to Dubai.