Twice in the last fortnight of the WTA’s regular season, a WTA 500 and a WTA 250 are played in the same week. Ningbo and Osaka share the week of 19 October, and Tokyo and Guangzhou share the week of 26 October, according to the WTA. A leading player cannot simply choose the smaller event. The WTA’s Play Up Rule decides where she plays, and a short list of exemptions decides who is allowed around it. This explainer sets out how the rule works, using the WTA’s 2026 Official Rulebook.
The Play Up Rule
In any week with both a WTA 500 and a WTA 250, a player ranked 1 to 30 at the 500’s singles main draw entry deadline may not play the 250, in singles or doubles, if her ranking is good enough to get her into the 500’s main draw. The rulebook calls her a Top 30 Player. The only way around it is a WTA 250 Play Down Exemption, and a Top 30 Player can receive two of those in a Tour Year.
The ranking that counts is the one at the entry deadline, not the one in the week of the event. For WTA 1000, 500 and 250 tournaments, the main draw entry deadline falls four weeks before the Monday of the tournament week, unless the WTA sets another date. A player who has climbed into the top 30 since then is not caught by the rule for that event, and one who has dropped out of it since then still is. How deadlines and acceptance lists work in general is covered in GTN’s guide to tennis entry lists.
Who can get an exemption
The rulebook names three kinds of Exemption Player.
- The defending champion. The previous year’s singles champion qualifies, provided the tournament is held within 125 miles of the venue it used the year before and in the same host country. A tournament that moves city or country loses this route.
- The local player. A player whose nationality, as the WTA records it, is the country where the tournament is held.
- The 11-30 player. A player ranked 11 to 30 at the main draw entry deadline.
A tournament may take one Exemption Player from each category. If the defending champion or a local player does not enter, or does not need an exemption to play, the tournament can take a second 11-30 player in that place. The ceiling is three Exemption Players in all. Inside that total, a 250 played in a 500 week may accept only one player ranked 1 to 10 at its entry deadline, counting the defending champion and the local player. If both of those are top-10 players, the tournament chooses one of them.
How a tournament locks them in
The tournament, not the player, makes the first move. By 2 p.m. Eastern time on the day of its main draw entry deadline, it must send the WTA an Exemption Player Nomination Form. That form lists its Confirmed Exemption Players, each of whom must then return an acceptance form, and any Alternate Exemption Players it wants next in line. A top-30 player who enters the 250 but is not nominated is not a Confirmed Exemption Player and is not accepted at the deadline.
The rulebook also covers what happens when plans change. If a Confirmed Exemption Player withdraws after the entry deadline but before qualifying sign-in, the first alternate from the same category takes her place. If there is no alternate in that category, the tournament has until the qualifying sign-in deadline to find an eligible replacement of its choice; if it cannot, the next player on the main draw list moves in. A tournament with no Confirmed Exemption Player at the deadline can still bring one in later through a wild card.
The yearly limits
Two caps apply on top of the two Play Down Exemptions a top-30 player may use in a Tour Year. A top-10 player may play three WTA 250 tournaments in a Tour Year only if she played all her WTA 500 commitment tournaments the year before; if she did not, her limit is two. And an Exemption Player or top-10 player who withdraws from a 250 after being confirmed, after the entry deadline or after accepting a wild card still uses up one of her permitted 250s, unless the withdrawal is for a Long-Term Injury.
Weeks with no bigger event
The rule changes when a 250 has the week to itself, with no WTA 1000 or WTA 500 alongside it. Players ranked 11 and below may then play it freely, and the tournament may accept one top-10 player. It nominates that player through a Top 10 Player Nomination Form by the same 2 p.m. deadline. If it nominates no one, the highest-ranked top-10 player who entered is accepted.
How it fits with the 500 commitment
The Play Up Rule sits beside the WTA 500 commitment rules. A player accepted, or who would have been accepted, as a direct entry into six or more WTA 500 main draws at the entry deadline must play six of them, and a player who misses a commitment tournament takes a zero-point result on her ranking, according to the rulebook. Two provisions soften the pairing of 500 and 250 weeks. A 500 that loses a top-30 direct entrant after the deadline, with no other top-30 player next in, may name a replacement top-30 player of its choice until qualifying sign-in. And a player ranked 31 to 50 who would not have made the 500 main draw can play the 250 in the same week and have it count towards her 500 commitment, up to twice in a Tour Year. The WTA’s planned changes for next season, including fewer required 500s, are covered in GTN’s explainer on the WTA’s 2027 changes.
Season Snapshot: October 2026
Updated 8 October 2026. Two 500-and-250 weeks remain in the 2026 season, according to the WTA. The Ningbo Open (WTA 500) and the Japan Women’s Open in Osaka (WTA 250) run from 19 to 25 October. The Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo (WTA 500) and the Guangzhou Open (WTA 250) run from 26 October to 1 November. The 2025 champions were Leylah Fernandez in Osaka and Ann Li in Guangzhou, according to the WTA. The rules above are from the WTA Official Rulebook dated 27 July 2026. This snapshot is dated and will change. The rule above does not, until the WTA amends it.
