Home Blog Page 2

Wheelchair Tennis Rules Explained — Two Bounces, One Push on the Serve, and Who Plays in the Quad Division

Steven Hodel
-
0
Wheelchair Tennis Rules Explained — Two Bounces, One Push on the Serve, and Who Plays in the Quad Division

Wheelchair tennis is played under the ITF Rules of Tennis, with a short section of extra rules for the player in the chair. The best known of them fits in a sentence: a wheelchair player is allowed two bounces. The rest covers what counts as part of the body, how the serve works, what a player cannot do with their legs, and who is eligible to play at all.

The sport is 50 years old in 2026, and its season ends in November with the renamed NEC Wheelchair Singles Finals and UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Finals in Barcelona. Shingo Kunieda, who won 28 Grand Slam singles titles before retiring in 2023, is on the International Tennis Hall of Fame ballot for the Class of 2027. This explainer covers the rules, the divisions, the tour and the events that matter.

The Two-Bounce Rule

A wheelchair player may let the ball bounce twice before returning it. The first bounce must land in the court in the normal way. The second can land anywhere, inside or outside the court boundaries. The point is lost if the ball is not returned before it bounces a third time.

The Chair Counts as Part of the Body

Under the wheelchair rules, the chair is considered part of the player’s body. The rules that apply to a player’s body apply to the chair as well. Beyond a third bounce, there are two other ways to lose a point that have no equivalent in the standing game:

  • Using the lower body to move or brake. A player loses the point if they use any part of their feet or lower extremities against the ground or against a wheel while serving, hitting a stroke, turning or stopping with the ball in play. The rules define the lower extremities as the buttocks, hips, thighs, legs, ankles and feet.
  • Lifting off the seat. A player must keep one buttock in contact with the wheelchair seat at the moment of hitting the ball.

There is an exception for players who cannot propel the chair with their hands. They may push with one foot, but the foot must be off the ground during the forward swing of the racket, including contact, and from the start of the service motion until the ball is struck.

The chair itself is regulated. It must be made of non-reflective material, have one pushrim on each wheel, have no levers or gears, keep a fixed seat height and leave no permanent marks on the court. Powered chairs are allowed only for quad players whose impairment severely limits their ability to push, and they are capped at 15 kilometres per hour.

The Serve

The server must be stationary immediately before starting the service, and is then allowed one push before striking the ball. No wheel may touch the ground outside the area behind the baseline, between the imaginary extensions of the centre mark and the sideline. That is the wheelchair version of the foot-fault rule.

Quad players who cannot serve in the conventional way may have the ball dropped for them, by themselves or by another person, before striking it. Whichever method a player uses, they must use it for the whole match.

When a Wheelchair Player Meets a Standing Player

The rules cover mixed matches, in singles or doubles, between a wheelchair player and an able-bodied player. Each plays under their own rules: the wheelchair player gets two bounces and the able-bodied player one.

Who Can Play: the Open and Quad Divisions

Professional wheelchair tennis has two sport classes. The Open Division covers the men’s and women’s events. The Quad Division is for players whose impairment also affects the upper body; the ITF’s guide to classification describes it as the division for players with at least three limbs affected, and the 2026 ITF Wheelchair Tennis Classification Rules frame it around a substantial loss of function in one or both arms, such as a neurological deficit at the C8 level or above, an upper-limb amputation, or an inability to grip the racket without taping or an assistive device. Quad events are open to players of any sex or gender.

To be eligible at all, a player must have one of seven listed physical impairments: impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, hypertonia, ataxia or athetosis. The list is closed; any impairment not on it is not eligible. The impairment must also meet a minimum standard: it has to be a lower-limb impairment that affects on-court mobility in the able-bodied game in a way that can be demonstrated.

Eligibility is decided by a classification panel of at least two certified classifiers. A player is given a sport class status: New, Confirmed, Review or Not Eligible. Players must be at least 14 to enter men’s, women’s or quad draws on the tour.

The Tour and the Rankings

The professional circuit is the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, run by World Tennis, the former ITF. It has more than 160 tournaments in about 40 countries and more than $3 million in prize money. From 2026 its events are graded in three levels:

  • Premier: the Grand Slams, the season-ending Finals, and WT1000, WT500 and WT250 tournaments
  • International: WT175, WT100 and WT50
  • Development: WT25

The 2026 restructuring also put new wheelchair events at existing ATP and WTA tournaments, so the best players compete alongside the professional tours more often.

The UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Rankings cover the past 52 weeks. From 2026 they count a player’s best 12 results in the men’s and women’s events and best 10 in quad, up from nine, eight and seven. The Finals singles event is a mandatory event: a qualified player who misses it receives zero points for it unless an exemption applies. The Paralympic Games count toward the rankings.

The Grand Slams and the Paralympics

All four Grand Slams have staged wheelchair events since 2007. The US Open held its first wheelchair championships in 2005, Roland Garros in 2007, and Wimbledon, which began with doubles, has had men’s and women’s singles since 2016 and quad events since 2019. Singles draws at the majors are now 16 players in the men’s and women’s events. Quad singles draws were 16 at the 2026 Australian Open and US Open and eight at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

The record holders: Kunieda with 28 men’s Grand Slam singles titles; Diede de Groot with 23 and Esther Vergeer with 21 in the women’s event; and Dylan Alcott with 15 in quad.

Wheelchair tennis was a demonstration event at the Seoul Paralympics in 1988 and became a full medal sport at Barcelona in 1992. Quad singles and doubles were added at Athens in 2004, making six medal events. For Los Angeles in 2028, players need a Confirmed sport class status and must have been part of their nation’s World Team Cup squad during the qualifying cycle.

The Year-End Finals

The season ends with the NEC Wheelchair Singles Finals and UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Finals, called the Masters until this year. The singles event was first held in Eindhoven in 1994, with NEC as title sponsor from the start; the doubles began in 2000 and has been a standalone event since 2003.

The 2026 Finals are at the Centre Internacional de Tennis de Cornellà in Barcelona from 9 to 15 November, with $160,000 in prize money. Eight players in each of the men’s, women’s and quad singles and six teams in each doubles event qualified on the rankings of 28 September. In 2025 the singles players were split into two groups of four, with the top two in each going through to the semifinals. A singles player earns 160 ranking points for each round-robin win, 320 for winning a semifinal and 400 for winning the final, so an unbeaten champion takes 1,200.

How It Began

The sport dates from 1976 in California, when Brad Parks, paralysed after a freestyle skiing accident, and Jeff Minnebraker, a recreational therapist, tried playing tennis from wheelchairs. An international tour followed in 1992 with 11 tournaments. On 1 January 1998 the International Wheelchair Tennis Federation was integrated into the ITF, the first time an international federation had fully absorbed a wheelchair discipline into its governance. Parks became the first wheelchair player inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2010, and the Hall’s Wheelchair Tennis Category had seven members after Vergeer and the quad pioneer Rick Draney were elected in 2023.

2026 Snapshot (as of 21 October 2026)

  • Finals top seeds (Barcelona, 9–15 November): Tokito Oda (JPN) in the men’s singles, Yui Kamiji (JPN) in the women’s and Niels Vink (NED) in quad. The 2025 singles champions, in Huzhou, China, were Oda, Kamiji and Sam Schroder (NED).
  • Finals fields also include: Alfie Hewett (GBR), Martin de la Puente (ESP) and Gordon Reid (GBR) in the men’s event; Diede de Groot (NED) and Aniek van Koot (NED) in the women’s; Schroder and Guy Sasson (ISR) in quad.
  • Hall of Fame: Kunieda, winner of 28 Grand Slam singles and 22 Grand Slam doubles titles and four Paralympic gold medals, is the Wheelchair Tennis Category nominee for the Class of 2027.

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.

Swiatek Ended Her Season Hours After Leaving Ningbo, and Will Not Be at Indian Wells Even as an Alternate

Steven Hodel
-
0
Swiatek Ended Her Season Hours After Leaving Ningbo, and Will Not Be at Indian Wells Even as an Alternate

Iga Swiatek will not play again this year. Hours after the left thigh injury that hampered her in the Wuhan semifinals took her out of the Ningbo Open, the six-time Grand Slam champion said on Tuesday that she was ending her season, with two more weeks of tour events and the WTA Finals still to come.

“This has been one of the most demanding seasons of my career, with a lot of challenges, changes and lessons along the way,” Swiatek wrote on Instagram. “I’m especially proud of the work we’ve done in the second half of the year and the progress that came with it. It gives me a lot of confidence in what’s ahead.”

“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,” she wrote. “So that’s exactly what I will do, a bit longer this time.” Then the decision itself: “I’ve decided to end my season here, which means I won’t be playing any more tournaments this year.”

The thigh had been a problem for weeks, by her own account. In Wuhan she led Maja Chwalinska 5-3 with two set points in the first set of their semifinal, called for treatment on the left thigh at 5-6 and lost 7-5, 6-1. When she pulled out of Ningbo on Tuesday morning, before playing a match as the second seed, she described “an ongoing problem with my left thigh over the past weeks”. Anastasia Zakharova took her place in the draw as a lucky loser.

The season. Swiatek finishes 2026 with a 39-15 record and one title, the Canadian Open in Toronto in August. She did not get past the quarterfinals at any of the four majors, and her most recent Grand Slam title is still Wimbledon in 2025. She is ranked No. 9.

What it means. Swiatek had played the WTA Finals every year since 2021 and won the title in 2023. Withdrawing from Ningbo had already ended any chance of qualifying on points: she is ninth in the Race on 4,189, and a Tokyo title would have taken her to 4,689 at most, still short of the 4,735 that Karolina Muchova holds for the last place. What Tuesday’s second announcement changes is the reserve list.

Finishing ninth would have made Swiatek the first player outside the field, the position the WTA has designated first alternate in recent years. That role is not a formality. It put Maria Sakkari into the 2023 field when Muchova withdrew with a wrist injury five days before play began, and it put Daria Kasatkina on court against Swiatek herself in Riyadh in 2024. By ruling out any more tournaments this year, Swiatek has taken herself out of that picture too. Behind her in the Race are Marta Kostyuk on 3,920, Iva Jovic on 2,931 and Chwalinska on 2,755. Chwalinska also withdrew from Ningbo, with a left thigh injury of her own.

The last place. Seven players have qualified for Indian Wells: Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Elina Svitolina and Linda Noskova. Muchova is not playing this week and is not among the direct entrants for Tokyo. Going into Ningbo, she was certain of the eighth place if Swiatek failed to reach the quarterfinals and Kostyuk failed to reach the final. The first half of that settled itself on Tuesday. Kostyuk, the third seed, had a first-round bye and plays Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round on Wednesday. A run to the final would carry the chase into Tokyo, where she is entered.

For how the reserve system has worked at the last three Finals, see our WTA Finals alternates explainer. For how the eight places are filled, see the WTA Finals qualification explainer. On Tuesday morning the race looked like Kostyuk against a total that is not moving; that has not changed.

What’s next. The Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, the last WTA 500 of the season, runs from 26 October to 1 November; Swiatek had been among its direct entrants. The WTA Finals are at Indian Wells from 8 to 15 November. On Tuesday the WTA named FAGE as title partner of the season finale, so this year’s edition is the FAGE WTA Finals Indian Wells, and the agreement continues when the event moves to Charlotte from 2027 to 2029. Our Ningbo Open guide, Pan Pacific Open guide and guide to both season finales cover the rest of the calendar.

Barty, del Potro and Kuznetsova Are on the Hall of Fame Ballot, and the Fan Vote That Can Add Three Points Closes on Sunday

Steven Hodel
-
0
Barty, del Potro and Kuznetsova Are on the Hall of Fame Ballot, and the Fan Vote That Can Add Three Points Closes on Sunday

Juan Martin del Potro came from two sets to one down against Roger Federer to win the 2009 US Open, ending the reign of a five-time defending champion after beating Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Ash Barty walked away in 2022 as the world No. 1, holding major singles titles won on clay, grass and hard courts. Both are on the ballot for the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s Class of 2027, announced on Monday, and fans have until Sunday to cast the votes that can add to their totals.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, a two-time major singles champion, completes the Player Category, which recognises ATP and WTA players with a distinguished record at the highest level of the game. Shingo Kunieda, who won 28 Grand Slam singles titles and four Paralympic gold medals, is nominated in the Wheelchair Tennis Category.

The nominees. Barty is on the ballot for the first time. She won Roland Garros in 2019, Wimbledon in 2021 and the Australian Open in 2022, and added a major in doubles at the 2018 US Open with CoCo Vandeweghe. She first reached No. 1 in 2019 and spent 121 weeks there, 114 of them in a row. She won the 2019 WTA Finals in Shenzhen, was WTA Player of the Year in 2019 and 2021, took 15 singles and 12 doubles titles, and won Olympic bronze in mixed doubles in Tokyo. She retired in 2022 with a 305-102 singles record.

Del Potro, a former world No. 3, won 22 tour-level titles. He finished 2009 as the youngest player in the Top 10, led Argentina to its first Davis Cup title in 2016, the same year he took Olympic singles silver in Rio, and won the last title of his career at Indian Wells in 2018, saving three championship points against Federer in the final. He was also on last year’s ballot.

Kuznetsova, 41, is on the ballot for the second time. She won the US Open in 2004 and Roland Garros in 2009, and the Australian Open doubles title twice, in 2005 with Alicia Molik and in 2012 with Vera Zvonareva. Over a 15-year career she won 18 singles and 16 doubles titles, reached No. 2 in singles and No. 3 in doubles, and was part of three Billie Jean King Cup-winning teams. “I am incredibly pleased that my achievements are still remembered and appreciated,” she wrote on Instagram.

The Wheelchair Tennis Category comes round every four years. At its last appearance, for the Class of 2023, Esther Vergeer and the quad pioneer Rick Draney were both elected, the first time the category had produced two inductees in the same year, and that took it to seven members.

How the vote works. The decision belongs to the Hall’s Official Voting Group, made up of tennis journalists, historians and Hall of Famers. A nominee needs at least 75 percent. The fan vote, open at vote.tennisfame.com until 25 October for the Player Category nominees, works as a bonus: the top three finishers have three, two and one percentage points added to their totals from the voting group. The fan results are announced shortly after the poll closes; the Class of 2027 and the dates of next year’s induction will follow later this year. The Hall does not publish its voting figures.

The bar is high enough that a strong ballot can produce one inductee or none. Last year Federer was the only Player Category candidate to receive enough support, elected in his first year of eligibility, with the broadcaster Mary Carillo chosen in the Contributor Category. Del Potro and Kuznetsova were both on that ballot. The Classes of 2022 and 2023 had no Player Category inductee at all.

What’s next. The fan poll closes on Sunday. Federer went into the Hall at Newport the night before the 2026 US Open began; whoever is elected this time will be inducted in 2027. For categories, the voting group and how the threshold works, see our Tennis Hall of Fame explainer.

WTA Finals Alternates Explained — The Two Players Who Just Miss the Field Are Named as Cover and a Withdrawal Can Put One on Court

Steven Hodel
-
0
WTA Finals Alternates Explained — The Two Players Who Just Miss the Field Are Named as Cover and a Withdrawal Can Put One on Court

Every WTA Finals has eight singles qualifiers and two more players who are not in the field. The alternates are the players who finish just behind the qualifiers in the Race to the WTA Finals. They are named when the field is set, and they are the cover if a qualifier cannot play, whether she withdraws before the event or in the middle of the round robin.

The question is live this week. With one place left for Indian Wells, Iga Swiatek’s withdrawal from Ningbo leaves her unable to catch Karolina Muchova on points. If the standings hold, Swiatek and Marta Kostyuk finish as the first two players outside the field.

Who Becomes an Alternate

The field comes from the PIF Race to the WTA Finals leaderboard: the top eight singles players, with the eighth place going instead to a current-year Grand Slam singles champion ranked eighth to 20th if one has not otherwise qualified. That rule, and how Race points are counted, is covered in our WTA Finals qualification explainer and our guide to the Race to the WTA Finals.

The alternates come from the players who miss out. In October 2025, with Mirra Andreeva, Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina chasing the last two places, the WTA said that whichever of the three finished outside the top eight would be designated first alternate, and it followed a separate race further down the standings for the second alternate. When the field was complete, the WTA named Andreeva first alternate and Ekaterina Alexandrova second.

When a Qualifier Withdraws Before the Event

The first alternate moves into the field. In October 2023 Muchova, the eighth player to qualify, withdrew from the WTA Finals in Cancun with a right wrist injury five days before play began. Maria Sakkari, ranked ninth, had missed the cut by one place; as first alternate she took Muchova’s spot and made her third straight appearance at the event.

“Together with the team and doctors, we tried everything till the last moment to resolve my wrist injury. Unfortunately, the time needed for the recovery is longer than we would’ve hoped for,” Muchova said, “and therefore I had to make this unpleasant decision.”

When a Qualifier Withdraws During the Round Robin

The alternate takes the withdrawn player’s place in her group for the matches she has left. In Riyadh in 2024, Jessica Pegula lost her first two matches, was out of semifinal contention and withdrew with a left knee injury before her last group match, against Swiatek. Daria Kasatkina, the first alternate and world No. 9 at the time, played Swiatek in her place.

“Just been kind of struggling with a little bit of an injury,” Pegula said, “and for whatever reason, it kind of really flared up this week. Not really sure why.” An alternate’s match can still decide someone else’s week. Swiatek went into that final round of the Orange Group needing to beat Kasatkina and also needing Coco Gauff to beat Barbora Krejcikova to reach the semifinals.

A year later the first alternate turned the chance down. Madison Keys, 0-2 after a three-set loss to Amanda Anisimova, withdrew with a viral illness hours before her last group match against Rybakina. Andreeva, the first alternate, declined to play, citing fitness concerns. Alexandrova, the second alternate, made her WTA Finals debut at 30 and lost to Rybakina in straight sets.

What the 2026 Rulebook Fixes

The 2026 WTA Rulebook, dated 27 July 2026, treats the alternates as part of the Finals week. It refers to “the two confirmed WTA Finals Alternates” and bars them, like the qualifiers, from playing a WTA 125 tournament in the same week as the WTA Finals, even if they withdraw from the Finals.

The qualifiers have less room to step away than at a regular event. A player who qualifies for the singles must play under the rulebook’s WTA Finals section, and neither an Excused Withdrawal nor a Prize Money Withdrawal can be used at the Finals. The WTA Finals section of the rulebook sets out the detailed alternate procedure. This explainer describes how the WTA has applied it at the 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions.

The ATP Version

The men’s tour names alternates for Turin under its own rules. See our ATP Finals alternates explainer, and our guide to both season finales for format and prize money.

Season Snapshot — 20 October 2026

  • Qualified (7): Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Elina Svitolina, Linda Noskova
  • Last place: Karolina Muchova, seventh in the Race on 4,735 points, not playing this week
  • Iga Swiatek: ninth on 4,189; withdrew from Ningbo on 20 October with a left thigh injury and can no longer pass Muchova on points
  • Marta Kostyuk: 10th on 3,920; third seed in Ningbo. Muchova takes the last place unless Kostyuk reaches the Ningbo final
  • WTA Finals: Indian Wells, 8 to 15 November

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.

Tiafoe Is Seventh in the Race to Turin and in None of This Week’s Draws, While Cobolli, Medvedev and Fils Are Top Seeds

Steven Hodel
-
0
Tiafoe Is Seventh in the Race to Turin and in None of This Week’s Draws, While Cobolli, Medvedev and Fils Are Top Seeds

Frances Tiafoe stands seventh in the race for the Nitto ATP Finals, with five places still open, and his name is in none of this week’s three ATP draws. The men around him are all top seeds with first-round byes: Flavio Cobolli in Lyon, Daniil Medvedev in Almaty and Arthur Fils in Brussels.

Tiafoe’s last match was in the third round in Shanghai, where Alejandro Davidovich Fokina saved a match point against him on the way to the title. No reason for his absence this week has been announced.

The standings. After Shanghai the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin reads: Alexander Zverev 9,150 (qualified), Jannik Sinner 7,950 (out for the rest of 2026), Carlos Alcaraz 4,600 (qualified), Ben Shelton 4,480 (qualified), Cobolli 3,540, Medvedev 3,420, Tiafoe 3,380, Fils 3,325, Rafael Jodar 3,159 and Alex de Minaur 2,880. With Sinner’s season over, ninth place is effectively the last qualifying position, and Jodar holds it.

Shelton is the third man into the field. He is going back to Turin for a second straight year after going 0-3 in the round robin on his debut last November.

Medvedev. He climbed two places to sixth by reaching the Shanghai semifinals, his third Masters 1000 semifinal of the season, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas and Tommy Paul on the way. The 2020 champion qualified every year from 2019 to 2024 and missed out last year. He is the defending champion in Almaty, where he beat Corentin Moutet 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in last year’s final, and opens against Sho Shimabukuro or qualifier Roman Safiullin.

Cobolli. Fifth in the Race and chasing a first appearance, Cobolli would make his debut in front of a home crowd in Turin. His season includes the Roland Garros final, the Cincinnati semifinals, the Wimbledon quarterfinals and the Acapulco title. In Lyon, a new ATP 250 at the LDLC Arena, he opens against wild card Stan Wawrinka or Martin Landaluce.

Fils. Eighth on 3,325, Fils is the top seed at the European Open and opens against Jaume Munar, who beat qualifier Federico Cina 6-4, 6-3 on Monday. Brussels is also where David Goffin plays the last tournament of his career this week.

The chasers. Paul won three straight-sets matches in Shanghai before losing a three-setter to Medvedev in the quarterfinals, and is up two places to 12th on 2,585. He is the fourth seed in Lyon and opens against Benjamin Bonzi or Cameron Norrie. A Lyon title is worth 250 points; he trails Jodar by 574. Davidovich Fokina is 16th on 2,450 after his Shanghai title. Neither Jodar nor de Minaur is in a draw this week.

What’s next. The ATP 500s in Vienna and Basel follow next week, then the Rolex Paris Masters. The Nitto ATP Finals are played at the Inalpi Arena in Turin from 15 to 22 November. For how the places are settled, including what happens when a qualifier withdraws, see our Race to Turin guide and ATP Finals alternates explainer. Event details are in our Lyon, Almaty, European Open, Vienna, Basel and Paris Masters guides.

Swiatek Withdrew From Ningbo With the Same Left-Thigh Injury, and Only Kostyuk Can Still Take the Last WTA Finals Place From Muchova

Steven Hodel
-
0
Swiatek Withdrew From Ningbo With the Same Left-Thigh Injury, and Only Kostyuk Can Still Take the Last WTA Finals Place From Muchova

Iga Swiatek led her Wuhan semifinal 5-3 with two set points on Saturday, then called for treatment on her left thigh at 5-6. Three days later the same thigh took her out of the Ningbo Open before she had played a match there. The second seed withdrew from the WTA 500 event on Tuesday, and Anastasia Zakharova, an alternate, took her place in the draw.

“After careful consideration, I’ve decided to withdraw from the tournament,” Swiatek said. “I’ve been experiencing an ongoing problem with my left thigh over the past weeks and I feel that giving myself the time to rest and recover is the right decision. I was really looking forward to competing here and I want to thank the tournament organizers and everyone who was hoping to see me play. I’m already looking forward to coming back next year!”

The match in Wuhan turned on that first set. After the timeout Maja Chwalinska took it 7-5, won the second 6-1 and went on to win the title on Sunday. Chwalinska will not play Ningbo either: she withdrew with a left thigh injury of her own.

The race. Seven players have qualified for the WTA Finals at Indian Wells: Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Elina Svitolina and Linda Noskova. The last place belongs, for now, to Karolina Muchova, seventh in the Race on 4,735 points. Swiatek is ninth on 4,189 and Marta Kostyuk 10th on 3,920.

Swiatek can no longer close that gap herself. Once Ningbo is over, the only events still counting toward the Race are Tokyo and Guangzhou next week. A Tokyo title is worth 500 points, which would take her to 4,689 at most, still short of the total Muchova already has. Muchova is not playing this week.

That leaves Kostyuk. Going into the week, Muchova was certain of the place if Swiatek failed to reach the Ningbo quarterfinals and Kostyuk failed to reach the final. The first condition was met the moment Swiatek withdrew. Kostyuk, the third seed, has a first-round bye and opens against Hanyu Guo or Ekaterina Alexandrova. A run to Saturday’s final would carry the race into Tokyo, where she is on the entry list.

What it means. Swiatek has qualified for the WTA Finals every year since 2021. If the standings hold, she finishes as the first player outside the field, the position the WTA designates as first alternate. That role put Maria Sakkari into the 2023 field when Muchova withdrew with a wrist injury five days before play began.

For how the WTA picks a player to fill a place, see our WTA Finals qualification explainer and our guide to the Race to the WTA Finals. On Monday the race for the last place looked like a three-way chase; by Tuesday it was Kostyuk against a total that is not moving.

What’s next. Rybakina, the world No. 1 and defending champion, is the top seed in Ningbo. Kostyuk’s second-round match comes mid-week, with the final on Saturday. The Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo runs from 26 October to 1 November, and the WTA Finals are played at Indian Wells from 8 to 15 November. Our Ningbo Open guide and Pan Pacific Open guide cover both events.

Diane Parry Profile — A One-Handed Backhand, a Monterrey Title and a First Grand Slam Fourth Round

Steven Hodel
-
0
Diane Parry Profile — A One-Handed Backhand, a Monterrey Title and a First Grand Slam Fourth Round

Diane Parry plays with a one-handed backhand, a stroke that has become rare in the women’s game, and in 2026 she finally turned a long run of near misses into a title. The Frenchwoman, born in Nice in 2002, had lost all six of her tour-level semifinals before she won the WTA 500 in Monterrey in August, a few months after reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time at Roland Garros.

Early Career

Parry was born on 1 September 2002 in Nice and started playing tennis at five. She made her professional debut at a W15 event in Le Havre in 2017 and played qualifying at Roland Garros for the first time the following year.

Her Grand Slam main-draw debut came at Roland Garros in 2019 on a wild card. She won her first-round match before losing in the second to Elise Mertens. Her first ITF title followed in 2020 at a W15 in Antalya, Turkey, and in 2021 she won the WTA 125 event in Montevideo and was runner-up in Buenos Aires. She entered the top 100 for the first time on 28 February 2022.

Roland Garros 2022

The result that made her name in France came at Roland Garros in 2022, when she beat defending champion Barbora Krejcikova in the first round. She went on to the third round before losing to Sloane Stephens. A few weeks later she reached the third round at Wimbledon as well, where she lost to Ons Jabeur.

2023 to 2025: Into the Top 50

Parry reached a tour-level semifinal in Lausanne in 2023, losing to Clara Burel, and won two doubles titles that year, in Lausanne with Anna Bondar and in Mérida with Caty McNally.

Her 2024 season was steadier. She reached the third round of the Australian Open for the first time and the fourth round at Indian Wells, her best result at WTA 1000 level. She added semifinals in Osaka, Palermo and Nottingham, broke into the top 50 for the first time, reached a then career-high No. 48 in October and finished the year at No. 50.

The following year went the other way in the rankings. Parry reached the third round at Wimbledon as a qualifier and the third round at the US Open, but finished 2025 ranked No. 127.

2026: Paris, Roland Garros and a First Title

Parry was ranked No. 111 in early March. She reached the semifinals in Ostrava and came through qualifying at Indian Wells, where she beat Venus Williams in the first round before losing to Madison Keys.

The turn came in May. She won the WTA 125 title in Paris, beating Keys in the final when the American retired, and went from a 9-11 record for the season to 21 wins in her next 29 matches by the end of August. At Roland Garros she beat the sixth-ranked Amanda Anisimova in the third round, her best win by ranking, to reach the fourth round of a major for the first time. She lost there to Maja Chwalinska, who went on to the final.

She lost in the second round at Wimbledon to Anna Kalinskaya after two hours and 57 minutes, her longest match of the year, then reached the fourth round in Cincinnati, beating Mertens 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 before losing to Iga Swiatek. That run returned her to the top 50.

In Monterrey she was unseeded and ranked No. 50. She beat four top-50 players to reach the final, among them Donna Vekic in three sets and Clara Tauson in the quarterfinals. In the final she met Mertens again, the second seed. Parry broke in the 10th game to take the first set, lost the second 6-0, then broke early in the third for 2-0 and moved ahead 5-1. Mertens broke back once, but Parry served it out for a 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 win.

It was the first tour-level final of her career. She was the eighth first-time champion of the 2026 season, the second player with a one-handed backhand to win a WTA title that year after Lilli Tagger in Prague, and the second Frenchwoman to win Monterrey after Marion Bartoli in 2009. The title lifted her 19 places to a then career-high No. 31.

Game

Parry is right-handed and hits a one-handed backhand. Hard courts are her favourite surface, and her best results at tour level have come on them: the Monterrey title and semifinals in Ostrava, Osaka and Granby. Her best Grand Slam run, though, came on clay, at Roland Garros in 2026.

Grand Slam Best Results

  • Australian Open: Third round (2024)
  • Roland Garros: Fourth round (2026)
  • Wimbledon: Third round (2022, 2025)
  • US Open: Third round (2025)

Season Snapshot (as of 18 October 2026)

  • Ranking: No. 32
  • Career high: No. 30 [UNVERIFIED: career-high No. 30 appears only on the WTA player page, with no date; the WTA’s 31 August rankings report gave No. 31 as her career high at that point]
  • 2026 titles: Monterrey (WTA 500); Paris (WTA 125)
  • Best 2026 Grand Slam result: Roland Garros fourth round
  • Coaches: Thomas Hogstedt and Julie Coin
  • Next: In the main draw of the Ningbo Open (19–25 October)

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.

Muchova Holds the Last WTA Finals Place Without Playing Ningbo, and Swiatek Arrives With a Bandaged Left Thigh

Steven Hodel
-
0
Muchova Holds the Last WTA Finals Place Without Playing Ningbo, and Swiatek Arrives With a Bandaged Left Thigh

Iga Swiatek finished her Wuhan Open semifinal on Saturday with a bandage around her left thigh, after her physio had told her three times to stop. Two days later she is the second seed at the Ningbo Open, chasing the last place at the WTA Finals against a rival who is not playing this week.

Swiatek led Maja Chwalinska 5-3 in the first set and had two set points before her compatriot came back to lead 6-5. She took a medical timeout there, and after treatment she could not push hard off the leg or chase balls across the court, losing 7-5, 6-1. Chwalinska went on to win the title on Sunday. Swiatek’s physio, Maciej Ryszczuk, wrote afterwards: “I told her three times to stop the match because it was a risk to her health. She made the decision herself to carry on playing, and since she’s made that decision, I’ll support her as best I can.”

Where the race stands. The defeat confirmed Elina Svitolina as the seventh qualifier for the WTA Finals at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, which run from 8 to 15 November. The 2018 champion joins Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff and Linda Noskova. The eighth place belongs, for now, to Karolina Muchova, seventh on the Race leaderboard with 4,735 points. Swiatek is ninth on 4,189, 546 points behind. Marta Kostyuk is 10th on 3,920, 815 behind.

Who plays where. Muchova, who lost in the Wuhan round of 16 to Diana Shnaider, is not in the Ningbo draw, and she was not among the direct entrants the WTA listed on 1 October for Tokyo, the last WTA 500 of the season. Swiatek and Kostyuk were named in both fields. That leaves the two chasers two weeks of tennis against a total that is not moving unless Muchova adds an event.

The Ningbo draw. Swiatek, seeded second, and Kostyuk, seeded third, both have first-round byes and sit in the bottom half, so they can meet only in the semifinals. Swiatek opens against qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova or Marie Bouzkova, with Sorana Cirstea the seeded player in her quarter. Kostyuk opens against wild card Guo Hanyu or Ekaterina Alexandrova, with Elise Mertens the seed in hers. Defending champion Rybakina is the top seed, and Iva Jovic the fourth. Svitolina and Pegula, both named when the WTA announced the Ningbo field in September, are not in the draw. [UNVERIFIED: Swiatek’s fitness for Ningbo. No statement on her left thigh since Saturday was found on an approved source; she remains in the official draw released on 18 October.]

The arithmetic. A Ningbo title is worth 500 points, a final 325 and a semifinal 195, and the Tokyo champion also earns 500. Even a Ningbo title would not on its own close Swiatek’s 546-point gap, and Kostyuk is further back than a single title can cover. Each of them needs a deep run in both weeks. For how results count toward the leaderboard, see our explainers on the Race to the WTA Finals and WTA Finals qualification.

What it means for Swiatek. She has played every WTA Finals since 2021 and won the title in 2023. Before Wuhan she called the chase new territory. “Obviously I’m aware of the situation and it would be great to get into the Finals, for sure it’s our goal,” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve faced a situation like that, to get into the finals.”

What’s next. Main-draw play in Ningbo began on Monday, and the final is on Sunday 25 October. Tokyo follows from 26 October to 1 November. Our Ningbo Open guide and Pan Pacific Open guide cover both events, and the ATP Finals and WTA Finals guide covers Indian Wells.

Stockholm Open Guide — Dates, Venue, Draw and Every Champion Since 2010

Steven Hodel
-
0
Stockholm Open Guide — Dates, Venue, Draw and Every Champion Since 2010

The Stockholm Open is the oldest indoor tournament on the ATP Tour and the only one played in an arena built specifically for tennis. In 2026 it moves from its usual October week to 8–14 November, plays for the first time as the Bybit Stockholm Open, and returns to the Royal Tennis Hall with Casper Ruud as defending champion.

Stockholm Open at a Glance

  • Category: ATP 250
  • 2026 dates: 8–14 November
  • Venue: Kungliga Tennishallen (the Royal Tennis Hall), Stockholm, Sweden
  • Surface: Indoor hard court
  • First held: 1969
  • 2026 name: Bybit Stockholm Open (BNP Paribas Nordic Open from 2023 to 2025)
  • 2025 champion: Casper Ruud

A November Date in 2026

Stockholm has spent recent seasons in October. The 2025 edition ran from 13 to 19 October. The 2026 tournament is listed for 8–14 November, moving it into the final weeks of the ATP calendar. For how the autumn indoor events fit together, see our European indoor season explainer.

The name has changed again too. After three years as the BNP Paribas Nordic Open, the event plays in 2026 as the Bybit Stockholm Open, after its new title partner.

The Venue

Kungliga Tennishallen was built for tennis, and Stockholm is the only tour event played in an indoor arena designed specifically for the sport. Around 30,000 spectators come through over the week, and the event runs with more than 350 volunteers.

The ownership is unusual for a tour event. The tournament is owned and run by three non-profit organisations: Salk, the Stockholm Tennis Federation and KLTK. Any surplus goes to their youth programmes to support Swedish tennis, and more than 60 million Swedish kronor has been distributed so far.

How the Draw Works

Stockholm is an ATP 250, so the champion takes 250 ranking points; the full points table by round is in our ATP 250 guide. The 2025 singles field had eight seeds, four qualifiers and three wild cards, and the champion earned €107,490 in prize money. How those places are handed out is covered in our explainers on seeding, qualifying and wild cards.

History

The tournament was founded in 1969 on the initiative of former player Sven Davidson and is the oldest indoor event on the ATP Tour. It has been held every year since, except 2020, when it was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its winners include Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Roger Federer, Boris Becker, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg. Becker and McEnroe share the record for singles titles with four each, and Edberg holds the record for singles match wins with 34. The last Swedish champion was Thomas Johansson in 2004.

The modern era has produced a run of repeat winners. Tomas Berdych won three titles, in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Juan Martín del Potro won back to back in 2016 and 2017. Gaël Monfils won in 2011 and again in 2023, and Tommy Paul won in 2021 and 2024.

Recent Singles Finals

  • 2025: Casper Ruud d. Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-3
  • 2024: Tommy Paul d. Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-3
  • 2023: Gaël Monfils d. Pavel Kotov 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3
  • 2022: Holger Rune d. Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4
  • 2021: Tommy Paul d. Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
  • 2020: Not held
  • 2019: Denis Shapovalov d. Filip Krajinovic 6-4, 6-4
  • 2018: Stefanos Tsitsipas d. Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-4
  • 2017: Juan Martín del Potro d. Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2
  • 2016: Juan Martín del Potro d. Jack Sock 7-5, 6-1
  • 2015: Tomas Berdych d. Jack Sock 7-6(1), 6-2
  • 2014: Tomas Berdych d. Grigor Dimitrov 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
  • 2013: Grigor Dimitrov d. David Ferrer 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
  • 2012: Tomas Berdych d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
  • 2011: Gaël Monfils d. Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 3-6, 6-2
  • 2010: Roger Federer d. Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-3

2025: Ruud Becomes the First Norwegian Champion

Ruud won the 2025 title in 68 minutes, beating Humbert 6-2, 6-3 and losing only three points on his serve. It was his 14th tour-level title and his second of that season after the Madrid Masters, and it made him the first Norwegian to win in Stockholm. Humbert had reached the final when Holger Rune retired from their semifinal with an Achilles injury.

“I am really happy to win here in Stockholm,” Ruud said.

Season Snapshot (as of 18 October 2026)

  • 2026 tournament: Bybit Stockholm Open, 8–14 November
  • Entry list: Not yet published by the ATP or the tournament
  • Defending champion: Casper Ruud
  • Tickets: Sold through the official tournament website

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.

More Indoor Events

The rest of the autumn indoor calendar is covered in our guides to the European Open in Brussels, the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, the Swiss Indoors Basel and the Paris Masters.

Chwalinska Was a Set and a Break Down to Kartal, Then Won Wuhan for the First Title of Her Career

Steven Hodel
-
0
Chwalinska Was a Set and a Break Down to Kartal, Then Won Wuhan for the First Title of Her Career

Maja Chwalinska spent the first set of the Wuhan Open final scrambling from corner to corner while Sonay Kartal hit through her from the baseline. Two hours and 43 minutes after the first ball, the Pole had the trophy, beating Kartal 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday for the first tour-level title of her career.

Kartal needed 45 minutes and three breaks of serve to take the opening set, and she led 2-0 in the second. Chwalinska, the 16th seed, was a set and a break down. She turned the match with the tennis that had beaten Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 in the semifinals: longer rallies, every ball run down, and changes of pace with her left-handed touch. Kartal saved 10 of the 13 break points she faced in that set, but Chwalinska broke for 4-3 and closed it out after 71 minutes.

“I feel like my energy level was very low at the beginning, but also Sonay played amazing,” Chwalinska said. “Gradually I started to play much better and much more aggressive. Also, the depth on my shots improved.”

Kartal had little left in the decider. Chwalinska broke her twice and won on her third championship point. On a Dongfeng Voyah center court where neither player served an ace, Kartal finished with more winners, 32 to 23, and more unforced errors, 36 to 27. “It was a very physical battle and I think I had my chances and I think that’s maybe where the rust of six months off comes in,” Kartal said.

What it means. Chwalinska is the fourth player to make a WTA 1000 event her first tour-level title, after Naomi Osaka at Indian Wells in 2018, Bianca Andreescu at Indian Wells in 2019 and Victoria Mboko in Montreal in 2025. She started the year ranked 146th and reached the Roland Garros final as a qualifier in June. Wuhan is worth 1,000 ranking points and $665,000, and it lifts her to a career-high No. 11 in the rankings released on Monday. Her route to the title went through 10th seed Iva Jovic, Maria Sakkari and Swiatek.

She said the months after Paris had been hard. “But it feels special, because after French Open, it was obviously amazing, but then I had some tough moments. I feel like people also were very rough towards me. And it took a toll on me as well,” she said. “I’m just a human. But I kept working really hard and I’m just very grateful that my work paid off.”

Kartal’s week. Kartal, who missed more than six months this season with a stress fracture in her back, came into Wuhan ranked 170th and leaves it back inside the top 50. She beat Belinda Bencic, Jasmine Paolini, Elina Svitolina and Jelena Ostapenko on the way to her first WTA 1000 final, as our semifinal report set out. It was Chwalinska’s first at the level too. “Obviously not the result I wanted and it’s going to sting for a little while but I think for me the positives this week outweigh that result today,” Kartal said.

The race for Indian Wells. Swiatek finished her semifinal with a bandaged left thigh, and the defeat confirmed Svitolina as the seventh qualifier for the WTA Finals. One place is left. Karolina Muchova holds it, with Swiatek and Marta Kostyuk chasing her through Ningbo and Tokyo over the next two weeks.

What’s next. Chwalinska goes straight to the Ningbo Open, where she opens against Polish qualifier Katarzyna Kawa in the quarter of top seed Elena Rybakina. For the history of the event she has just won, see our Wuhan Open guide, and for her career so far, our Maja Chwalinska profile.

123...99Page 2 of 99