Elena Rybakina will arrive in Tokyo as the World No. 1 and top seed for the Toray Pan Pacific Open, where the season’s final WTA 500 tournament will offer one last major opportunity to reshape the race for the WTA Finals.
Key takeaways
- The 28-player singles field includes Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, Elina Svitolina, Iga Swiatek and Marta Kostyuk.
- The Tokyo champion will collect 500 ranking points and $185,500 in prize money.
- The top four seeds will not play until the second round, having received opening-round byes.
- Defending champion Belinda Bencic returns for her seventh appearance at the event.
- First-round matches begin on Monday, Oct. 26, with the singles and doubles finals scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 1.
Final WTA 500 could affect the Finals picture
Tokyo comes at a pivotal stretch of the calendar, following the start of the Beijing WTA 1000, which is the penultimate WTA 1000 event of the year. With 500 points on offer, the Pan Pacific Open could carry substantial consequences in the PIF Race to the WTA Finals.
Svitolina is currently sixth in the race standings and Karolina Muchova seventh. Linda Noskova holds eighth place, and her Grand Slam title this season means she would only miss qualification if she were to fall below No. 20 in the Race rankings. Kostyuk and Swiatek sit ninth and 10th respectively as the Beijing event gets under way.
Rybakina, meanwhile, is also pursuing the year-end No. 1 ranking. She reached the Tokyo semifinals last season but withdrew before her last-four match because of back pain.
The draw will also feature a strong group of Top 20 players: Bencic, Iva Jovic, Diana Shnaider, Sorana Cirstea, Naomi Osaka, Alexandra Eala, Elise Mertens and Jasmine Paolini. Cirstea’s appearance could be the final tournament of her career.
Maja Chwalinska, Anna Kalinskaya, Leylah Fernandez and Ekaterina Alexandrova complete the direct-entry list. Ann Li, Diane Parry, Maria Sakkari and Nikola Bartunkova are first in line as main-draw alternates.
Alongside the 17 direct acceptances, the Tokyo main draw will include six qualifiers, four wild cards and one special exempt entrant.
Bencic and Osaka bring Tokyo title history
Bencic returns as the reigning champion after lifting the trophy last year. Her route included victories over Varvara Gracheva, Muchova and Sofia Kenin before she defeated Noskova in the championship match.
This will be Bencic’s seventh visit to the Toray Pan Pacific Open. She first played the tournament in 2013 and reached the final in 2015, when Agnieszka Radwanska stopped her title bid.
Osaka is another former Tokyo winner in the field. The Japanese star captured the title in 2019 and had previously finished runner-up at the tournament in both 2016 and 2018.
With the leading seeds protected until round two, the opening days of the draw will determine which challengers earn a first meeting with Rybakina, Pegula, Svitolina and the other highest-ranked entrants in the final WTA 500 stop of the season.
