WTA China Open: Start date, how to watch, past winners, history & more

The stars are out in force for the WTA China Open, with this month’s US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka headlining the show in the absence of defending champion Iga Swiatek.

Swiatek has withdrawn from the Beijing event due to personal matters and world number four Elena Rybakina is another high-profile absentee, as is Emma Raducanu.

However, it is still an extremely competitive field also featuring the likes of Jessica Pegula, Jasmine Paolini, Coco Gauff, Qinwen Zheng and Emma Navarro.

WTA China Open Dates

The main draw of the WTA China Open takes place this year from Wednesday 25th September and concludes with the final on Sunday 6th October.

Qualifying took place on Monday 23rd September and Tuesday 24th September.

WTA China Open Venue

This hard court WTA 1000 tournament will be staged at the China National Tennis Centre in Beijing, China.

It was opened in October 2007 and has been the home of the China Open since 2009 and it currently has 12 competition hard courts.

The venue hosted the tennis preliminaries and finals of the singles and doubles for men and women at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

WTA China Open How to watch

All China Open matches will be available to watch live on bet365’s Sports Live Streaming service.

Sky Sports Tennis and Sky Sports Main Event will also be showing extensive live coverage of the women’s event on all main tournament days, including the final.

WTA China Open Favourites

Having won both hard-court Grand Slams this season, the Australian Open and the US Open, top seed Sabalenka heads the betting at 7/5.

Sabalenka has no Swiatek or Rybakina to contend with, enhancing her chances of claiming a maiden WTA China Open title.

The Belarusian is a 16-time winner on the WTA Tour, which includes three Grand Slam titles, and she is chasing a third straight victory having claimed silverware in Cincinnati and at the US Open.

Next in the betting at 6/1 is American ace Pegula, who played second fiddle to Sabalenka in the US Open final earlier this month.

Pegula has won six titles on the WTA Tour, although she is yet to make her breakthrough at WTA 1000 or Grand Slam level.

Gauff, the US Open champion in 2023, is available at 17/2, but she has had little to celebrate since making the French Open semi-final in June.

Home favourite Zheng is 11/1 and she finished as runner-up to Sabalenka in January's Australian Open final, while also claiming China's first Olympic tennis singles gold medal in August.

Karolina Muchova, a semi-finalist at the US Open and a former French Open runner-up, is 16/1 while Navarro is available at 20/1.

WTA China Open History

The tournament was first held in 1993, discontinued in 1998, and reinstated in 2004. 

In 2006, the China Open became the first tournament outside the USA to use the Hawk-Eye system in match play and it became a WTA 1000 event for the first time last season.

The total prize money for the 2023 tournament was $11.62 million, which is the highest of any of the WTA 1000 competitions.

There will be 96 players competing in the women's singles main draw, with the 32 seeded players receiving first-round byes.

WTA China Open Past Winners

Swiatek is the defending champion at the China Open and her victory last year was the first tournament to take place in Beijing since 2019.

Naomi Osaka was crowned champion five years ago, with the Japanese star defeating former world number one Ashleigh Barty in the final.

In 2018 the title went to Caroline Wozniacki, who alongside Svetlana Kuznetsova, Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska is one of only four dual winners of the event since its introduction in 2004.

Britain’s Johanna Konta was runner-up to Radwanksa in 2016 and remains the only Briton to have made the final in Beijing.