Polona Hercog arrived in Quito last December ranked No. 672 and left with the title. She beat Luisina Giovannini 6-2, 6-1 in the final of the first WTA 125 event the Ecuadorian capital had staged, after losing just 11 games in her last three matches, and she finished the 2025 season as the lowest-ranked WTA 125 champion of the year.
The Quito Open returns for its second edition from 30 November to 6 December 2026, on outdoor clay, as one of the last events of the women’s season. It falls in the WTA’s off-season, and that changes who is allowed to enter.
Quito Open at a Glance
- Event: Quito Open, a WTA 125 tournament
- Dates: 30 November to 6 December 2026
- City: Quito, Ecuador
- Surface: outdoor clay
- Prize money: $115,000
- Draws: 32 singles players, 8 doubles teams
- Champion’s ranking points: 125
- First edition: 2025
- 2025 champions: Polona Hercog (singles); Valeriya Strakhova and Anastasia Tikhonova (doubles)
The tournament’s page is on the WTA website.
How the Draw Works
The singles main draw has 32 players and no byes, so the champion wins five matches. In 2025, qualifying was a single round: eight players for four places. The size of the 2026 qualifying draw has not been published. The WTA confirms the final draws three days before play starts.
Last year’s main draw carried five wild cards. Three went to Ecuadorians, Mell Reasco Gonzalez, Camila Romero and Valentina Vargas, one to Colombia’s Valentina Mediorreal Arias, and one to the top seed, Tatjana Maria. When places opened up, Ecuador’s Tania Varela got in as a lucky loser. The doubles draw is eight teams, so the champions play three matches. Our guide to reading a tennis draw explains the WC, Q and LL labels on the draw sheet.
Points and Prize Money
Quito pays the standard WTA 125 points, which count towards the WTA rankings:
- Singles: champion 125, finalist 81, semifinalist 49, quarterfinalist 27, second round 15, first round 1
- Singles qualifying: qualifier 6, loser in the final qualifying round 4, first-round loser 1. With a one-round qualifying draw, as in 2025, players either qualify (6) or lose (1).
- Doubles (8-team draw): champions 125, finalists 81, semifinalists 49, quarterfinalists 1
The total commitment for 2026 is $115,000, the same as in 2025. The 2026 breakdown by round has not been published. In 2025 it was:
- Singles: champion $15,500, finalist $8,400, semifinalist $5,300, quarterfinalist $3,450, second round $2,000, first round $1,250
- Singles qualifying: first-round loser $1,000
- Doubles (per team): champions $6,000, finalists $4,300, semifinalists $2,600, quarterfinalists $2,000
Who Can Enter in the Off-Season
The WTA Rulebook treats weeks 45 to 52 as the off-season, and the week of 30 November falls inside it. In that window, a player ranked in the top 20 at the main-draw entry deadline may not play a WTA 125. Players ranked 21 to 50 cannot enter directly either, but up to four of them may play on a WTA-approved wild card. A top-10 player may not accept a WTA 125 wild card at any time of year.
That is how Quito opened in 2025. Maria, ranked 41st, came in on a wild card and was seeded first. She then withdrew with a right calf injury.
The main-draw entry deadline for a WTA 125 falls four weeks before the event, and the qualifying deadline three weeks before. How those lists are built and how players move up as others withdraw is covered in our explainer on tennis entry lists.
Players also have more room to pull out late in the year. Each player gets one extra singles and one extra doubles Off-Season Excused Withdrawal for a WTA 125 in November or December, and must use best efforts to withdraw at least 12 hours before the match. A singles withdrawal after main-draw acceptance that is not excused is a late withdrawal, fined $500 at a WTA 125 ($250 in doubles). Our explainer on WTA prize money withdrawals covers the on-site version of the rule.
The 2025 Edition
Hercog, a 34-year-old Slovenian and a former world No. 35, had played just one tournament between July 2024 and July 2025. In Quito she came through three-set matches against Sara Sorribes Tormo and the No. 2 seed, Oleksandra Oliynykova, her first top-100 win since 2023, then lost 11 games in the quarterfinal, semifinal and final combined. It was her biggest trophy since Lugano in 2019, where she beat Iga Swiatek in the final, and it lifted her 339 places, from No. 672 to No. 333.
Giovannini, a 19-year-old Argentine, was in her first WTA 125 final. She had won four W35 titles in 2025 but had never reached a quarterfinal above that level, and she upset Maja Chwalinska on the way. The final took her to a career-high No. 226.
The first round produced one of the longest WTA 125 matches of the season: Varvara Lepchenko beat Carolina Alves 7-6(6), 6-7(6), 6-2 in three hours and four minutes. In the doubles, second seeds Strakhova and Tikhonova beat Irene Burillo and Anastasia Zolotareva 6-4, 6-1 in the final.
Every Quito Open Champion
- 2025 singles: Polona Hercog (SLO) d. Luisina Giovannini (ARG) 6-2, 6-1
- 2025 doubles: Valeriya Strakhova (UKR) and Anastasia Tikhonova d. Irene Burillo (ESP) and Anastasia Zolotareva 6-4, 6-1
The Other Late-Season WTA 125 Guides
GTN also has guides to the WTA 125 events in Buenos Aires, Sopó and Colina, and to the French indoor events in Angers and Limoges.
Season Snapshot (as of 10 November 2026)
- Entry list: not yet published by the WTA.
- Draws: to be confirmed three days before play starts on 30 November.
- Prize money: $115,000 total commitment; the breakdown by round is not yet published.
- Defending champions: Polona Hercog (singles); Valeriya Strakhova and Anastasia Tikhonova (doubles).
This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.
