The Asian swing is the stretch of the tennis season that follows the US Open, when both tours move to China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. For the men it lasts about four weeks and ends with the Shanghai Masters in mid-October. For the women it runs longer, from late September into early November, with two WTA 1000 events at its centre.
It is the last big block of outdoor hard-court tennis in the calendar, and for many players it decides whether their season ends at the tour finals or a week earlier. It follows the North American hard-court swing and precedes the European indoor events that close the year.
The men’s swing. The ATP leg is built in three steps. It opens with two ATP 250 events played the same week, in Chengdu and Hangzhou. The following week brings two ATP 500 events, again side by side: the China Open in Beijing and the Japan Open in Tokyo. The swing ends with the Rolex Shanghai Masters, the only ATP Masters 1000 event in Asia.
Shanghai runs across roughly two weeks with a 96-player singles draw, the same format used at Indian Wells and Miami. The draw was expanded from 56 players in 2023, the first year the event returned after the pandemic.
The opening week also overlaps the Laver Cup, which means several top-20 players skip Chengdu and Hangzhou and fly from London to Beijing or Tokyo.
The women’s swing. The WTA leg is deeper and longer. It begins with two WTA 500 events in the same week, the Korea Open in Seoul and the Singapore Tennis Open, which is the one indoor stop in the region. The China Open in Beijing follows as a two-week WTA 1000 event; its singles draw was expanded to 96 players in 2024.
Wuhan hosts the second WTA 1000 a week after Beijing ends. The tour then splits across smaller events: the Ningbo Open, a WTA 500, and the Japan Open in Osaka, a WTA 250, in the same week; then the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, a WTA 500, alongside the Guangzhou Open, a WTA 250. WTA 250 events in Hong Kong and Chennai close the Asian calendar in early November.
The Billie Jean King Cup Finals fall in the opening week of the women’s swing, which thins the Seoul and Singapore fields for players on qualified national teams.
Why it matters. Points. A Masters 1000 title is worth 1,000 ranking points and an ATP 500 title 500, and the swing arrives when the qualification races for the season-ending finals are at their tightest. For men chasing a place at the ATP Finals, Beijing, Tokyo and Shanghai are often the difference. The current standings are tracked in our Race to Turin guide.
On the women’s side, Beijing and Wuhan carry WTA 1000 points in consecutive fortnights, and the late-October events in Ningbo and Tokyo are among the last chances for players on the edge of the WTA Finals field.
Conditions. Every event in the swing except Singapore is played outdoors on hard courts. Early-autumn heat and humidity in eastern China can be severe. At Shanghai in 2025, Agence France-Presse reported players struggling, wilting and retiring in the heat. Travel is the other test: the men’s swing alone crosses from Sichuan to Japan and back to the Chinese coast in three weeks.
After Asia. The men move to the European indoor season, including the ATP 500 events in Basel and Vienna and the Paris Masters, before the ATP Finals. The women finish in Asia and go on to the WTA Finals in November. For how these blocks fit together across the year, see how the tennis calendar is built, and for why surface speed changes results from one swing to the next, our guide to tennis court surfaces.
Season Snapshot — 2026 Asian swing (as of 15 September 2026).
Dates are subject to change by the tours.
ATP
- Chengdu Open (ATP 250) — 23–29 September
- Hangzhou Open (ATP 250) — 23–29 September
- China Open, Beijing (ATP 500) — 30 September–6 October
- Japan Open, Tokyo (ATP 500) — 30 September–6 October
- Rolex Shanghai Masters (ATP Masters 1000) — 7–18 October
WTA (weeks as listed on the WTA calendar)
- Korea Open, Seoul (WTA 500) — week of 21 September
- Singapore Tennis Open (WTA 500, indoor) — week of 21 September
- China Open, Beijing (WTA 1000) — 30 September–11 October
- Wuhan Open (WTA 1000) — week of 12 October
- Ningbo Open (WTA 500) — week of 19 October
- Japan Open, Osaka (WTA 250) — week of 19 October
- Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo (WTA 500) — week of 26 October
- Guangzhou Open (WTA 250) — week of 26 October
- Hong Kong Open and Chennai Open (WTA 250) — week of 2 November
2025 champions: Beijing — Jannik Sinner and Amanda Anisimova. Shanghai — Valentin Vacherot. Wuhan — Coco Gauff. Seoul — Iga Swiatek.
