Wuhan Open 2024: Top five players who have withdrawn from WTA 1000 event

Wuhan Open returns to the WTA 1000 calendar after a four-year gap.

The Wuhan Open 2024 is back as a part of the WTA calendar for the first time since 2019. It will be the final WTA 1000 event of the season and the second such tournament hosted by China following the China Open in Beijing.

The tournament is in its seventh edition. World No. #2 Aryna Sabalenka is the two-time defending champion and the top seed following Iga Swiatek’s unexpected withdrawal. The Belarusian, who is in a showdown for the year-end No. #1 ranking with Swiatek, is 12-0 at the venue following her 2018 debut.

How well the women of the WTA Tour perform at the Wuhan Open will help to determine who will qualify for the year-end WTA Finals in Riyadh. Swiatek and Sabalenka have already qualified with six spots remaining.

Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen will be joined by Chinese players Yuan Yue, Wang Xinyu and Zhang Shuai in the main draw. Mirra Andreeva, Lulu Sen, Coco Gauff, and Leyla Fernandez — all debutants at the Wuhan Open 2024 are also players to watch out for.

Among the withdrawals are Elena Rybakina, Caroline Garcia, Ons Jabeur and Danielle Collins. The most high-profile exit is World No. #1 Iga Swiatek. These four are among a handful of names to have announced their absence from the event.

Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek was the source of two surprising announcements on Friday — withdrawing from the Wuhan Open three days prior to her debut at the event and pulling the plug on her coaching partnership with Tomasz Wiktorowski.

The five-time Grand Slam champion hasn’t played since her US Open quarter-final loss to Jessica Pegula. Swiatek will now miss the last WTA 1000 event of the season. Her decision will not affect her chances of making it to Riyadh as she clinched the qualification for the year-ending event in August.

The withdrawal does leave Swiatek’s World No. #1 position under threat, most notably from Sabalenka, who will play in Wuhan as the two-time defending champion. The Pole will be taking the next few weeks off to find herself a new coach which is the reason she is unable to grace the Wuhan-based event.

Caroline Garcia

Caroline Garcia, the title winner in 2017, withdrew from the main draw with a right shoulder injury. The 30-year-old Frenchwoman has not made it past the second round at any of the Grand Slams this season. Along with the persistent shoulder injury, the 36th-ranked Garcia cited exhaustion from anxiety and panic attacks as a reason for ending her 2024 campaign early.

The one-time World No. #4 announced her decision to return in the 2025 season with a promise to be ready to take on the rigours of competitive tennis after preparing herself mentally and physically. 

Elena Rybakina

Elena Rybakina has not played since withdrawing from the 2024 US Open due to a lower back injury. The World No. #4 withdrew from the Asian swing in late September due to the injury persisting. Rybakina was to wind up her regular season on the WTA Tour at the back-to-back WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan.

The Kazakh is hopeful of competing in Riyadh if she qualifies. She is currently in the third position on the Race to the WTA Finals, slated to begin on 2nd November.

Rybakina began her 2024 season with a win at Brisbane before picking up titles at Abu Dhabi and Stuttgart.

Danielle Collins

Danielle Collins, who returned to the WTA Top 10 in July 2024 for the first time in nearly two years, will be absent from the final WTA 1000 event of the year. The last time she found herself among the top 10 was in August 2022.

Collins’ farewell year is in danger of getting derailed due to an illness. She withdrew from last week’s China Open and will be missing from Wuhan, too.

The American, who will be hanging up her racket at the end of 2024, lifted the Miami Open and Charleston Open trophies back-to-back and re-entered the top 10. A late-season slump beginning in Monterey extending to the US Open and the Guadalajara Open leaves only a handful of events for Collins to make her mark and end her farewell season on a high.

Ons Jabeur

Ons Jabeur, a three-time Grand Slam finalist, announced her decision to end her 2024 campaign prematurely due to a niggling shoulder injury. The twice Wimbledon finalist (2022, 2023) pulled out of tournaments in Cincinnati and Washington and the US Open itself due to concerns with her shoulder.

The 2023 Ningbo Open was the Tunisian’s most recent title, along with the most recent appearance in a final. The 30-year-old Jabeur now finds herself out of the WTA Top 20 for the first time since August 2021.

The five-time WTA title holder plans to return to competitive tennis at the season-opening 2025 Australian Open.

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