World No. 1 Elena Rybakina withdrew from the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Friday with inflammation and pain in her neck, nine days before she begins the defence of her WTA Finals title at Indian Wells. The top seed was due to play Leylah Fernandez in the quarterfinals. The Canadian went through on a walkover, and on Saturday she beat lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova 7-5, 6-3 to reach Sunday’s final against third seed Diana Shnaider.
“Dear fans, I’m very sorry to announce that I’ve had to withdraw from my next match,” Rybakina said in a statement. “Unfortunately, I’ve been experiencing inflammation and pain in my neck, which has been affecting my ability to play at my best. It’s a very difficult decision, as I love playing here and always appreciate the incredible support from the fans. I hope to be back again next year.”
The statement did not mention the WTA Finals, which start on 8 November. Earlier in the week Rybakina had needed one win in Tokyo to secure the year-end No. 1 ranking for the first time, and she took it against Yulia Putintseva. She won the Australian Open and the US Open this year, and a week ago she beat Fernandez in the Ningbo final.
Fernandez came from behind twice. She fell behind early in both sets on Saturday. From 2-0 down in the second, Fernandez won six of the last seven games. She hit 41 winners against 20 unforced errors, served nine aces and won 14 of her 20 points at the net in a match that lasted 1 hour and 54 minutes.
Rakhimova had beaten her in three sets in Beijing earlier this month, and Fernandez brought it up herself. “She beat me three weeks ago,” she said on court. “She played an incredible match then, and she still played an incredible match now. So I’m just happy with the way that I stayed composed, at least for the most part, and of course used the energy from the crowd to help me.”
Rakhimova, who came into the main draw as a lucky loser, beat Ekaterina Alexandrova in a deciding-set tiebreak and then Maya Joint 7-5, 5-7, 6-1 for her first semifinal at WTA 500 level.
Shnaider saved a set point. The third seed beat 18-year-old wild card Mia Pohankova 6-4, 7-6 (7) in 1 hour and 46 minutes. Pohankova led 6-5 in the second-set tiebreak, one point from a deciding set, and Shnaider won four of the last five points. She landed 72 per cent of her first serves and won 80 per cent of those points, and her second break of the opening set closed a run of four straight games.
“It’s never easy on this stage, one step away from the final,” Shnaider said. “She’s definitely a special talent at 18 years old. For sure a future career ahead of her. But yeah, very happy to be in the first final of my season and definitely special to achieve it here.”
The final. Shnaider leads the head-to-head 3-2 and has won their last three meetings in straight sets, two of them this year in Adelaide and Charleston. The last set they played, in Charleston, ended 6-0. Fernandez is in her third final of 2026, all of them in the last two months. “It’s going to be a tough battle,” Shnaider said. “Another lefty, so it’s definitely not going to be an easy match.”
Indian Wells. The WTA Finals run from 8 to 15 November at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, with eight singles players in two round-robin groups. Format, field and prize money are in our WTA Finals guide. If a qualifier cannot play, before the event or during it, the two named alternates are the cover, as set out in WTA Finals alternates explained, and any withdrawal is tracked on our WTA Finals 2026 withdrawals page. Dates and past champions for Tokyo are in our Pan Pacific Open guide.
