The Singapore Open is due to open the WTA Tour’s Asian swing, but the field has thinned considerably before the first ball is struck.

The WTA 500 event starts on September 21st, with Mirra Andreeva, Alex Eala and Amanda Anisimova among those still scheduled to compete. The draw has already been completed, and it had pointed toward a possible final between Andreeva and Eala. Even so, the list of withdrawals has kept growing.

Janice Tjen became the latest player to step out of the tournament, pulling out just one day before it was set to begin. She said a right wrist injury was behind the decision.

Tjen is the 10th player to withdraw from the event and joins a group that includes Jessica Pegula, Diana Shnaider and Sorana Cirstea. Pegula, who would have been the top seed, announced her withdrawal on social media.

“I’m really disappointed to have to withdraw from Singapore,” Pegula said via an Instagram Story on the 15th September, less than a week before the tournament was set to begin.

“After a long and physically demanding few weeks at the US Open, I’m just not quite ready to get back on court and compete at the level I expect from myself,” said the US Open 2026 semi finalist. “I was really looking forward to playing in Singapore and hope I can come back in the future.”

The withdrawal list also includes Diana Shnaider, Sorana Cîrstea, Anastasia Potapova, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Sára Bejlek, Ann Li, Clara Tauson and Mayar Sherif. Each has been replaced in the draw, with some spots going to named alternates and others to a qualifier or lucky loser.

The Singapore Open will serve as a lead-in to the China Open, the penultimate Masters tournament on the WTA Tour calendar. The event runs from September 21st to September 27th, ending three days before the China Open begins.

Elise Mertens will return as the defending champion after winning the title in 2025, and she enters the WTA 500 event as the fourth seed.

Alex Eala will need to negotiate a difficult field if she is to lift the Singapore Open title next week.

As the third seed, the 21-year-old has received a bye into the second round after being placed among the top four seeds. Her opening opponent will be either world No 152 Sofia Costoulas or world No 178 Tatiana Prozorova, a first-round match that will decide who meets the Filipina first.

Eala has not played either player before. If she comes through that match, the route could quickly become more demanding, with Queen’s Club champion and former world No 17 Donna Vekic waiting in the quarter-finals.

Eala leads Vekic 2-0 in their head-to-head after winning both meetings this year. The first came in Auckland, where she prevailed in three sets, while the second was a straight-sets result in Berlin. Those contests were tight, underlining the scale of the challenge ahead.

Should Eala move beyond that stage, second seed Amanda Anisimova could stand in her way in the semi-finals. The American won their only meeting in Cincinnati in August, taking a three-set battle as Eala fell 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in her final warm-up event before the US Open.

The upper half of the draw also places Mirra Andreeva in contention for the final, with the French Open champion projected to meet defending champion and fourth seed Elise Mertens in the semi-finals. Eala has never faced Andreeva on the WTA Tour, though she did defeat the Russian on the way to the girls’ singles title at the 2022 US Open.

There are other players capable of complicating the draw, including Maja Chwalinska, Leylah Fernandez, Barbora Krejcikova and Maria Sakkari. In other parts of the bracket, Andreeva may open against Daria Kasatkina or Aliaksandra Sasnovich, while Anisimova is set to begin against Talia Gibson or wild card Fiona Ferro.

The event has been upgraded from a 32-player WTA 250 held in late January last year to a 28-player WTA 500 in 2026. Eala, Andreeva, Anisimova and Mertens have already secured 60 ranking points and $18,045 in prize money by receiving byes into round two.

The champion will earn $185,500 and 500 points, while the runner-up will take home $114,500 and 325 points. The main draw starts on Monday.

Egyptian player Mayar Sherif has become the latest withdrawal from the Singapore Open, extending a list that already includes eight others. The 2026 tournament will feature a 28-player field, with French Open champion Mirra Andreeva leading the draw as the top seed.

Amanda Anisimova, a former Wimbledon and US Open finalist, is seeded second. Alex Eala is third, while defending champion Elise Mertens comes in at No. 4. The Belgian won at the OCBC Arena last year, when the event was a 32-player WTA 250 staged in late January and early February.

After that title run, Mertens said, “It became really tight at the end. It was a bit nerve-wracking. I had a good start, and I felt [Ann Li] was building up pretty well, so I’m very pleased that I could finish that.”

The tournament has since been upgraded to a WTA 500. That change means the top four seeds receive byes into the second round. For Eala, that guarantees 60 ranking points and $18,045 (£13,468) in prize money.

Sherif, who is now 30, was due to play but is listed among the withdrawals on the WTA website. She holds a career-high ranking of No. 31, which makes her the highest-ranked Egyptian singles player, male or female, in the Open Era, which began in 1968. She is also a two-time WTA Tour title winner.

The winner in Singapore will earn $185,500 (£138,457), while the runner-up will take home $114,500 (£85,462). The event opens the Asian Swing, which also includes stops in Seoul, Beijing, Wuhan, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Osaka and Tokyo.

Singapore Open withdrawal list: Jessica Pegula, Diana Shnaider, Sorana Cîrstea, Anastasia Potapova, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Sára Bejlek, Ann Li, Clara Tauson and Mayar Sherif.