The Guangzhou Open is a WTA 250 tournament played on outdoor hard courts in southern China in the last week of October. The 2026 edition runs from 26 October to 1 November and is the tournament’s 20th, according to the WTA. It was the event where Li Na won the first WTA singles title by a Chinese player, in 2004, and this year it has a wild card for Venus Williams.
Dates and schedule
The main draw starts on Monday 26 October. The singles final is scheduled for Sunday 1 November, not before 4:30 p.m., with the doubles final at 2 p.m. Local time in Guangzhou is China Standard Time, GMT+8, which puts a 4:30 p.m. start at 3:30 a.m. in New York (daylight saving time ends in the United States that morning), 8:30 a.m. in London and 7:30 p.m. in Sydney. The schedule comes from the WTA.
Guangzhou shares its week with the WTA 500 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. It follows the Ningbo Open and the Japan Women’s Open in Osaka, and it comes in the closing weeks of the regular season before the WTA Finals, which the WTA lists at Indian Wells this year. GTN’s Asian swing explainer sets out how the autumn calendar fits together.
Venue
The tournament is played on outdoor hard courts at the Nansha International Tennis Center, according to the WTA.
Draw, points and prize money
The singles draw has 32 players and the doubles draw 16 teams. Ranking points and singles prize money by round, as published by the WTA in US dollars:
- Champion: 250 points, $37,390
- Finalist: 163 points, $22,125
- Semifinal: 98 points, $12,331
- Quarterfinal: 54 points, $7,025
- Second round: 30 points, $4,285
- First round: 1 point, $3,065
Venus Williams’ wild card
The tournament announced on 28 September that Venus Williams had been given singles and doubles wild cards, the WTA reported. It will be the seven-time Grand Slam champion’s first tournament in Asia since Tianjin in 2019, and she will play doubles with Indonesia’s Janice Tjen, who won the Guangzhou doubles title in 2025 with Katarzyna Piter.
Williams, 46, came back to the tour in Washington in July 2025 after a 16-month layoff and has played selected events on wild cards since. She beat Peyton Stearns in Washington but has not won a singles match in the 15 she has played since, according to the WTA. Her most recent event was the US Open, where she lost in the first round of both singles and doubles.
History
Guangzhou has been on the WTA calendar since 2004. Li Na won the first edition, and the WTA records it as the first WTA singles title won by a Chinese player. Chinese players have won five more of the 19 editions played so far: Yan Zi in 2005, Zhang Shuai in 2013 and 2017, Wang Qiang in 2018 and Wang Xiyu in 2023. Zhang is the only player to win the singles title twice.
The WTA honor roll lists no champion between 2019 and 2023. Every edition from 2004 to 2023 was played in mid- to late September, running into the first days of October in the early years; since 2024 the tournament has been held in late October.
Recent finals. Ann Li won in 2025, beating Lulu Sun 7-6(6), 6-2 in the final for her first title in four years, according to the WTA. Sun had come through qualifying and beat another qualifier, Claire Liu, in the semifinals. In 2024, Olga Danilovic beat Caroline Dolehide in the final to end a six-year title drought, the WTA reported.
Past singles champions
- 2025: Ann Li (United States)
- 2024: Olga Danilovic (Serbia)
- 2023: Wang Xiyu (China)
- 2019: Sofia Kenin (United States)
- 2018: Wang Qiang (China)
- 2017: Zhang Shuai (China)
- 2016: Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine)
- 2015: Jelena Jankovic (Serbia)
- 2014: Monica Niculescu (Romania)
- 2013: Zhang Shuai (China)
- 2012: Hsieh Su-wei (Chinese Taipei)
- 2011: Chanelle Scheepers (South Africa)
- 2010: Jarmila Groth (Australia)
- 2009: Shahar Peer (Israel)
- 2008: Vera Zvonareva (Russia)
- 2007: Virginie Razzano (France)
- 2006: Anna Chakvetadze (Russia)
- 2005: Yan Zi (China)
- 2004: Li Na (China)
The WTA lists the 2010 champion under her later name, Jarmila Wolfe. Peng Shuai won the doubles title four times, in 2007, 2013, 2016 and 2019, with four different partners.
2026 entries (as of 6 October 2026)
The tournament announced Williams’ wild cards on 28 September. The WTA entry list, draw and order of play will be published on the tournament page in the week before the event, and GTN will cover the draw when it is made.
This entries section is dated and will change. The history above does not.
