Stakes are high at WTA's first China Open in four years

The WTA’s $8 million China Open returns to Beijing for the first time since 2019. Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka will pick up their race for No. 1, and Coco Gauff will play her first match as a major champion.

China Open

• Beijing
• $8,127,389; WTA 1000
• Hard court
• Draw is here

It’s never going to be easy for fans in the West to keep up with the Asian swing, but the tours make it a little harder, just for good measure, by staggering the starts of their tournaments. Even as Ons Jabeur and Veronika Kudermetova were closing out their title runs in Ningbo and Tokyo this weekend, their fellow players had nearly completed the opening round in Beijing.

Starting Monday, though, the WTA’s final 1000 of 2023—and its $8 million dollar purse—will take center stage. This is the first time the event has been staged since 2019; that year’s final, between Ash Barty and Naomi Osaka, feels like it comes from a different era entirely. At that point, Iga Swiatek had never won a title of any sort. In fact, until this weekend, Swiatek had never been part of the Asian swing, and never been to China. This week, she’ll restart her race for the year-end No. 1 with Aryna Sabalenka, as well as a newly-brewing rivalry with Coco Gauff. The Pole and the American could meet in the semifinals.

Before we get there, though, we have to sort through a fairly chaotic opening couple of rounds. Because of the tight scheduling and the travel from Tokyo, several players have received a now-notorious performance bye, including Kudermetova and two other Tokyo semifinalists, Maria Sakkari and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. (Jabeur, who is coming from Ningbo, didn’t get one; she’ll play Ashlyn Krueger in her first round later today.)

At the same time, the Top 3 seeds, Sabalenka, Swiatek, and Gauff, who would normally expect to get a free pass in a tournament like this, have to face opening-round opponents. Sabalenka has already beaten Sofia Kenin; on Monday, Swiatek will face Sara Sorribes Tormo while Gauff will take on a not-so-easy foe in Ekaterina Alexandrova.

There have been a few upsets already. Anhelina Kalinina beat Marketa Vondrousova; Magda Linette beat Victoria Azarenka; Mirra Andreeva beat Barbora Krejcikova; Jasmine Paolini beat Beatriz Haddad Maia; and Yue Yuan, a wild card, beat Elise Mertens There could be more very shortly.

But the week’s bigger stories remain intact.

Sabalenka has a 1300-point edge on Swiatek in the race for No. 1. Swiatek says she’s not thinking about it, but if she wants, she’ll have a chance to narrow that lead here and in Cancun.

Gauff, who will make her China Open debut, will try to build off her US Open, and try to keep the No. 3 spot in the rankings from Elena Rybakina, who is 200 points behind her.

Jessica Pegula, No. 5 in the race, will try to lock down a spot in Cancun, while No. 8 Jabeur will try to stay ahead of No. 9 Sakkari for the final spot.

Elena Rybakina will play Zheng Qinwen in a first-round match on Monday. Zheng won gold at the Asian Games last week, but she’ll also be recovering from the loss of her coach, Wim Fissette, to Naomi Osaka. Zheng called Fissette’s decision “unethical” and something she won’t forgive. Will that fuel her, or distract her?

Tune in starting (very early) tomorrow to see.