Carlos Alcaraz has surprisingly been snubbed for top billing in his first-round match at the China Open. The world No. 3 will not face Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on centre court in Beijing, instead being scheduled for the second-largest arena.

Due to the demand to watch the reigning Wimbledon and French Open champion, Alcaraz is often placed on the main courts at tournaments. However, Chinese organisers have opted to showcase their homegrown talent on the venue’s main stage.

The Capital Group Diamond Court – the tournament’s centre court – will host an all-Chinese affair between Juncheng Chang and Yunchaokete Bu. That match will be followed by 32nd-seed Veronika Kudermetov’s clash with another home favourite, Xinyu Wang.

While Alcaraz’s match against Perricard is due to be played, centre court will be hosting Diane Parry vs second-seed Jessica Pegula. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs China’s Zhizhen Zhang has also been picked for the main court ahead of Alcaraz, while the order of play ends with Coco Gauff coming up against France’s Clara Burel.

The Diamond Court has a capacity of 15,000 seats for spectators wanting to watch the action. Alcaraz has instead been scheduled for the 10,000-seater Lotus Court, which will also host matches played by third seed Daniil Medvedev, fourth seed Alexander Zverev, and fans’ favourite Naomi Osaka.

Alcaraz bounced back from his disappointing second-round exit at the US Open by winning his two Laver Cup matches earlier this month. The 21-year-old defeated Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton at the Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany. He will hope to continue a largely successful season in Beijing.

The four-time Grand Slam champion recently complained about the growing number of matches and tournaments on tour, insisting that tennis bosses will “kill” players. “A lot of players say that it’s really tight and a lot of tournaments during the whole year,” he said.

“I’m the kind of player who thinks there are a lot of tournaments during the year, mandatory tournaments and probably during the next few years going to be even more tournaments, more mandatory tournaments.

“So, I mean, probably they are going to kill us in some way.Right now they are showing up a lot of injuries because of the ball, because of the calendar, because of a lot of things.

“So probably at some point a lot of good players are going to miss a lot of tournaments because of that because they have to think about their bodies, they have to take care of their love.”