The Pan Pacific Open will be the last WTA 500 tournament of the 2026 season, and the Tokyo event has already been rocked by some high-profile withdrawals.
Main draw action at the 2026 Pan Pacific Open — which will be the 52nd edition of the prestigious tournament in Japan — will take place from Monday 26 October to Sunday 1 November.
The tournament is staged on outdoor hard courts at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, and the total prize money pot is $1,206,446 this year.
The draw for the WTA 500 event features 28 players, including eight seeds, and the top four seeds receive a first round bye.
Belinda Bencic is the defending champion, having beaten Linda Noskova in the 2025 final to claim her first Pan Pacific Open title.
Five players currently in the top 10 of the WTA Rankings were on the entry list for the Pan Pacific Open, but four of those stars have since pulled out.
Since her US Open semi-final loss to Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula has played just one match — a second round defeat to Jelena Ostapenko in Wuhan last week.
The world No 4 spoke about feeling fatigued following a busy summer after she skipped the China Open, and she withdrew from this week’s Ningbo Open, as well as the Pan Pacific Open.
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“Sometimes things can happen because of the accumulation of a lot of matches, playing a lot of tennis,” the 32-year-old American said in Wuhan.
“When a big tournament finally ends, I think sometimes, for me at least, I start feeling a little bit run down.
“For me to balance how I’m feeling physically and mentally, it’s always to know when I’m at that threshold and maybe it’s time to let my body recover and catch up to all the activity and adrenaline that I was going through for the last few months.”
Iga Swiatek, the world No 9, announced on Tuesday that she would not play again in 2026 due to an ongoing thigh injury.
“The past few months, or actually the past couple of years, have been incredibly intense and I feel I need to rest and recover my body fully. So that’s exactly what I will do, a bit longer this time,” the Pole explained.
“I’ve decided to end my season here, which means I won’t be playing any more tournaments this year.”
World No 6 Elina Svitolina pulled out of Tokyo on Wednesday having also missed the Ningbo Open.
The Ukrainian announced on Monday that she had separated from her husband Gael Monfils.
Shortly after Svitolina‘s Tokyo withdrawal, world No 10 Marta Kostyuk joined her compatriot by pulling out after she retired due to injury during her opening match in Ningbo.
Kostyuk’s early exit in Ningbo ended her chances of qualifying for the 2026 WTA Finals.
World No 1 Elena Rybakina is the only top 10 player who remains on the Pan Pacific Open entry list.
The other player to withdraw from Tokyo is world No 23 Anna Kalinskaya. The 27-year-old Russian has not played since retiring from her match against Zheng Qinwen at the China Open due to illness.
2026 WTA Tokyo withdrawal list
- Jessica Pegula (world No 4) – replaced by Ann Li
- Elina Svitolina (world No 6) – replaced by Peyton Stearns
- Iga Swiatek (world No 9) – replaced by Nikola Bartunkova
- Marta Kostyuk (world No 10) – replaced by Cristina Bucsa
- Anna Kalinskaya (world No 23) – replaced by Diane Parry
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