Wuhan loses 11 players, including Rybakina and defending champion Gauff

Eleven names gone before a ball is struck

The last WTA 1000 event of the season has lost a large part of its field before it starts. Eleven players have withdrawn from the Wuhan Open, which runs from 12 to 18 October. The list includes world No. 1 Elena Rybakina and defending champion Coco Gauff. According to Tennis365, Amanda Anisimova, Victoria Mboko, Naomi Osaka, Madison Keys, Emma Navarro, Anastasia Potapova, Hailey Baptiste, Barbora Krejčíková and Karolína Plíšková have also pulled out.

With those players gone, Aryna Sabalenka is now the highest-ranked player in the 56-player draw. She has won the title in Wuhan three times and will be going for a fourth, after a shock straight-sets loss to Nikola Bartůňková in the third round in Beijing.

Gauff: "My body needs some time"

Gauff announced her withdrawal on 7 October, the same day she lost 6-3, 6-3 to Elise Mertens in the fourth round of the China Open. It was the Belgian's first win over her in six meetings. The No. 3 seed made 34 unforced errors, including eight double faults, and during the second set she told her team she had no energy and felt faint.

"After a long year, my body needs some time to rest and recover," Gauff said. Her week in Beijing had already been difficult off the court as well. After a disputed hindrance call in her second-round win over 16-year-old Sun Xinran, she received racist messages online. Not defending the Wuhan title will be costly in the rankings: Gauff beat Jessica Pegula 6-4, 7-5 in last year's final, so 1,000 points come off her total.

Rybakina's foot, Osaka's birthday

Rybakina withdrew on 4 October, after a three-set second-round loss in Beijing to world No. 118 Alina Charaeva. She has been dealing with a lower leg and foot injury for several months. "I'm very sorry to the fans who were looking forward to seeing me play. I'll take some time to rest and recover," she said. The Kazakh won her third Grand Slam title at the US Open and has already qualified for the WTA Finals, so she has less to lose by skipping the event.

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Naomi Osaka withdrew after losing in three sets to Karolína Muchová in the Beijing fourth round, and her reason was personal. "I'm going to fly back home to see my beautiful daughter and spend my birthday with my family for the first time in years," she said.

Who gets in instead

The withdrawals have given several players from further down the rankings a place in the main draw. Tennis365 lists Liudmila Samsonova as Rybakina's replacement, Kimberly Birrell as Gauff's and Katie Boulter as Osaka's. Austrian teenager Lilli Tagger, Germany's Tamara Korpatsch, Indonesia's Janice Tjen and Egypt's Mayar Sherif are also in. Zheng Qinwen, the 2024 Wuhan finalist, gets direct entry in place of Krejčíková and could give the event a home favourite. She plays Elina Svitolina in the Beijing quarter-finals today.

The prize money is $4,088,211, and the singles champion receives $665,000 and 1,000 ranking points. Main-draw play starts on Monday, and the singles final is scheduled for 18 October.