China Open entry list: Sabalenka leads Beijing field; defending champion Anisimova returns
Some of the game’s biggest names will return to action following the US Open as the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz heads to Singapore and Beijing.
The China Open will once again host one of the deepest fields of the season. All 14 of the world’s top-ranked players are entered in the WTA 1000, which begins Sept. 30, while 18 of the Top 20 are set to compete.
World No.15 Victoria Mboko, sidelined by a knee injury, and No.18 Alexandra Eala, who has adjusted her schedule, are the only Top 20 players not entered in Beijing.
Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff lead a 96-player field that also includes Mirra Andreeva, Linda Noskova, Karolina Muchova and Iga Swiatek. The event features 32 first-round byes and offers a major opportunity to shape the final stretch of the season.
Amanda Anisimova arrives as the defending champion after continuing her breakthrough 2025 campaign with her second WTA 1000 title. The American defeated Noskova in last year’s final, while Pegula and Gauff -- the two highest-ranked Americans in the field -- each reached the semifinals.
After a three-year pandemic pause from 2020 through 2022, the China Open has quickly re-established Beijing as one of the season’s most consequential stops. Its recent champions have used Beijing as a springboard into the season’s biggest closing moments.
Gauff is one of several former Beijing champions entered this year. She won the title in 2024, then carried that momentum into a championship run at the WTA Finals. Swiatek captured the 2023 trophy before going on to win the WTA Finals in Cancun and secure the year-end No.1 ranking. Naomi Osaka, the 2019 champion, is also among the entrants.
The China Open begins Sept. 30.
Before the WTA Tour reaches Beijing, the Singapore Tennis Open will bring a strong field to the indoor hard courts beginning Sept. 21. Pegula, Andreeva and Anisimova headline the WTA 500 entry list, alongside some of the tour’s fastest-rising players in Alexandra Eala and Maja Chwalinska.
The inaugural Singapore Tennis Open was held early last season as a WTA 250, marking the return of tour-level tennis to the city for the first time since the 2018 WTA Finals. Now elevated to WTA 500 status and moved to the post-US Open stretch of the calendar, it returns with a deeper field. Elise Mertens won last year’s title, defeating Ann Li in the final.
Highest-ranked players entered in Beijing
No.1 Aryna Sabalenka
No.2 Elena Rybakina
No.3 Jessica Pegula
No.4 Coco Gauff
No.5 Mirra Andreeva
No.6 Linda Noskova
No.7 Karolina Muchova
No.8 Iga Swiatek
No.9 Elina Svitolina
No.10 Amanda Anisimova
No.11 Marta Kostyuk
No.12 Belinda Bencic
No.13 Naomi Osaka
No.14 Iva Jovic
No.16 Diana Shnaider
No.17 Sorana Cirstea
No.19 Ekaterina Alexandrova
No.20 Elise Mertens
No.21 Jasmine Paolini
No.22 Maja Chwalinska
Highest-ranked players entered in Singapore
No.3 Jessica Pegula
No.5 Mirra Andreeva
No.10 Amanda Anisimova
No.16 Diana Shnaider
No.17 Sorana Cirstea
No.18 Alexandra Eala
No.19 Ekaterina Alexandrova
No.21 Maja Chwalinska
No.24 Elise Mertens
No.25 Anastasia Potapova
