World No. 1 Elena Rybakina defended her title at the Ningbo Open in China, pulling 2,000 points ahead of WTA No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Sabalenka rested, Rybakina won
The Belarusian rested last week. Meanwhile, Rybakina won the WTA-500 tournament in Ningbo in brilliant style.
Sabalenka will also skip the Toray Pan Pacific Open-2026 in Tokyo, where Rybakina is seeded first.
Rybakina's opponents in Tokyo
The Kazakhstani player is not involved in the first round. In the second round, she will face either Maria Sakkari (31) of Greece or her compatriot Yulia Putintseva, who dropped one place in the new singles ranking.
Kazakhstan's second racket continues her victorious run through the qualifiers of major tennis tournaments. After Wuhan and Ningbo, the two-time bronze medalist of the 2026 Asian Games, held in Japan, won the qualifying for the Tokyo 500 event.
In the first round of qualifying, 31-year-old Putintseva defeated 19-year-old Japanese player Haya Kinoshita (221) 7-5, 6-2. In the second round, she overcame another host player, 21-year-old Sayaka Ishii (589), with some difficulty 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Danilina in Tokyo
Anna Danilina will join Rybakina and Putintseva in the Japanese capital. The world No. 7 in doubles (her position in the top 10 doubles players remained unchanged in the new WTA ranking) is seeded second instead of Jiang Xinyu (26) of China. Today, they face a tough match against multiple Grand Slam champions Sara Errani (15) and Jasmine Paolini (29) of Italy.
Last year, Danilina and Alexandra Krunic of Serbia reached the Tokyo final. They lost only to the Hungarian-Brazilian pair Timea Babos/Luisa Stefani 1-6, 4-6.
Tournament history
The Toray Pan Pacific Open, a women's tennis tournament held on hard courts in Tokyo as part of the WTA-500 series, dates back to 1973. Until 2008, the tournament was held indoors. It then moved outdoors to Ariake Tennis Forest Park. The main arena, Ariake Coliseum, is equipped with a retractable roof.
Swiss player Martina Hingis won the tournament five times, and American Lindsay Davenport four times. Over the years, the Tokyo trophy has been claimed by legendary Billie Jean King, Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatini, Martina Navratilova, Maria Sharapova, Dinara Safina, Caroline Wozniacki and other stars.
The current champion is Belinda Bencic (14). In last year's final, the Swiss player defeated Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3.
The prize fund of the Toray Pan Pacific Open-2026 is $1.2 million.