Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open is the last WTA 1000 tournament in 2025 calendar. The main draw action starts on Monday 6th October with the stellar field. The champion from last year Aryna Sabalenka comes back to competition after getting a few weeks of rest following her victorious campaign in US Open. All the top players are there to play for the big prizes apart a few names. Madison Keys is sidelined since US Open. Daria Kasatkina has withdrew before the tournament due to back injury. Elina Svitolina has already ended her season to take rest after challenging campaign. The bad luck happened to recent convalescents - Qinwen Zheng, Barbora Krejcikova and Paula Badosa withdrew due to injuries sustained just after coming back from long recoveries.
This time, apart from the other WTA 1000 tournaments, the draw consists just 64 spots instead of 128, with 16 seeds and just 8 of them getting bye in opening round. That compresses a draw with many high quality match-ups since the start. Here is the breakdown of Wuhan Open's main draw.
Extremely Stacked Top Half
While the whole field is impressive, the upper half of the bracket concentrates players who have achieved much of success recently. Top quarter consists Sabalenka and 8th seed Elena Rybakina who is probably the most lethal player on serve and displayed a very consistent form during American hard courts swing. Sabalenka will start from second round, playing against Rebecca Sramkova or Anna Kalinskaya. Rybakina can meet the semifinalist of US Open and finalist of Canada Open - 11th seed Naomi Osaka, as early as in her second match in the tournament. Firstly, Osaka needs to defeat Leylah Fernandez in one of first round's hit clashes, to await a possible match-up against the finalist of WTA 1000 Beijing Linda Noskova in second round.
Second quarter is featured by the super in-form Amanda Anisimova who comes to Wuhan straight after her explosive run in Beijing. 6th seed Jessica Pegula seeks for another deep run after being semifinalist in China Open and US Open. 9th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova sets up another big match-up of opening round, facing the sensational Canada Open champion Victoria Mboko. The youngster is still yet to score any single victory after that epic run, always getting quite hard picks in opening rounds of her draws since then. Facing the very consistent Alexandrova who was recently a finalist in WTA 500 Seoul and sits 10th in WTA Race is surely this kind of bad luck in draw.
Stars to Bounce Back in Bottom Half
The bottom half is featured by players who can feel the disappointment after recently ended China Open, or even in a perspective of quite longer period. Iga Swiatek comes to Wuhan with mixed feelings. The Pole has taken the WTA 500 crown in Seoul, but got beaten by Emma Navarro in round of 16 of Beijing, receiving a bagel in decisive set. Quarterfinals in US Open was almost something below Swiatek's expectations, same as the current gap of 1.5k points behind Aryna Sabalenka in WTA Race. Swiatek's path in opening rounds not looks very dangerous, but the potential clash with Jasmine Paolini in quarterfinal does indeed. The Italian has won 13 out of 16 last matches played, including the run into final in Cincinnati and leading the Italian team to title defence in BJKC Finals. The potential revenge match with Swiatek after Cincinnati final is definitely on the cards.
Third seed Coco Gauff displayed a decent performance in Beijing up to the semifinal match, where she got absolutely crushed by Amanda Anisimova - not much by her own liabilities, but just being overplayed by the fellow American. The world number three is still yet to win a tournament on hard courts in 2025. She can face Emma Navarro in round of 16. The run in Beijing and victory against Swiatek was somewhat a revival after miserable part of season played by the 14th seed. Mirra Andreeva is Gauff's projected quarterfinals opponent as 5th seed. The Russian will try to regroup after two disappointing runs in US Open and Beijing. She can meet Karolina Muchova in round of 16. The Czech plays the most interesting match of first round in third quarter, meeting Marta Kostyuk for the start.
