Jannik Sinner remains in the draw for the 2026 Shanghai Masters with the tournament set to feature the three reigning Grand Slam champions as well as tennis great Novak Djokovic.
World No 1 Sinner has not featured on the ATP Tour since winning Wimbledon back in July due to a knee injury and, even though his recovery is going well, his team are yet to decide if he is fit enough to play in Shanghai.
But as things stand, the five-time Grand Slam winner will headline the draw with world No 2 Alexander Zverev topping up the bottom half with reigning Australian Open champion Alcaraz and Djokovic also in the line-up.
The four have not played in the same event since the Indian Wells Open in March as Alcaraz missed four months due to a wrist injury while Sinner missed the North American hard-court swing.
Zverev, of course, is the other Grand Slam winner from 2026 as he lifted the French Open and US Open trophies.
Valentin Vacherot is the defending champion after he produced a fairytale run as a qualifier 2025, defeating his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in the final, after beating the likes of Djokovic, Holger Rune and Alexander Bublik during his campaign.
ATP News
The Shanghai Masters is the penultimate ATP Masters 1000 event of the 2026 ATP Tour season and it will run from 7–18 October at the outdoor hard courts at Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena.
Besides Vacherot, four former champions will be in the draw with Djokovic (2012, 2013, 2015, 2018), Sinner (2024), Hubert Hurkacz (2023) and Daniil Medvedev (2019) also featuring.
How Many Players Will Feature?
The Shanghai Masters event is a 96-player singles draw tournament with five players receiving wildcards, 12 gaining entry via the qualifying competition and one player using his protected ranking to enter. The rest secured their places through their ATP Ranking.
The top 32 players in the rankings at the cutoff date – 28 September – will be seeded and they all receive byes into the second round.
World No 1 Sinner is the top seed and Zverev, Alcaraz, Ben Shelton, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli, Frances Tiafoe, Arthur Fils and Alex De Minaur complete the top 10.
In case you were wondering, Djokovic is set to be seeded 11th and defending champion Vacherot is 18th, although they could move up if players ahead of them in the draw pull out.
When Is The Shanghai Masters Draw?
All will likely be revealed on Monday, 5 October.
Monday, 29 September at 10:30 a.m. local time (China Standard Time).
Points And Prize Money On Offer…
The total prize pool for 2026 is $9,415,725 – up from the $9,193,540 in 2025. Last year, Vacherot earned $1,124,380 for his title run and Rinderknech received $597,890.
