Sinner returns, Rybakina arrives as No. 1: what's at stake in Beijing
Jannik Sinner has not played a match since the Wimbledon final on July 12. His next one is scheduled to be a title defense. That's the headline going into the China Open, and it sits on top of a men's field that includes seven of the current top 15 and a women's field led by a brand-new world No. 1.
The basics
Where: National Tennis Center, Beijing
Surface: Outdoor hard
Men: ATP 500, September 30 – October 6. 25th edition.
Women: WTA 1000, September 30 – October 11. 27th edition.
2025 champions: Jannik Sinner (men), Amanda Anisimova (women)
Entry lists and seedings below reflect the position as of September 21 and are subject to change until the draws are published — this is preview material, not a guarantee of who walks on court.
The men: a return, a race, and a reset
Sinner is the No. 1 seed and the defending champion. He withdrew from the US Open citing a right knee issue, having already missed Toronto and Cincinnati, and Beijing has been reported as his return target since. He skipped the Laver Cup to get here.
Waiting for him is the reason this matters beyond one trophy. Alexander Zverev, the No. 2 seed, won the US Open and now leads the Race to Turin, the year-to-date standing that decides year-end No. 1. In the 52-week rankings Sinner is still ahead, 11,500 points to 9,690 — but Sinner is the one with points to defend from here, starting with the 500 he earned in Beijing last year. Zverev has almost none. That asymmetry is the story of the rest of the men's season, and it starts this week.
Novak Djokovic is seeded seventh. This is his first event since the first-round loss in New York that dropped him to No. 12, outside the top 10 for the first time since July 2018.
The rest of the seeded eight: Félix Auger-Aliassime (3), Daniil Medvedev (4), Flavio Cobolli (5), Alex de Minaur (6) and Jakub Menšík (8). Karen Khachanov, fresh off a semifinal run in New York from outside the seedings, and Mariano Navone, who beat Djokovic in the first round there, are also in the field.
Why the top Americans aren't there
They're in Tokyo. The Japan Open is an ATP 500 running the identical week, and Carlos Alcaraz is defending his title there — joined by Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, Brandon Nakashima, Casper Ruud and Joao Fonseca. Holger Rune is also entered, playing his first ATP event in close to a year.
So the Asian swing opens split down the middle: Sinner, Zverev and Djokovic in Beijing; Alcaraz and the American contingent in Tokyo. Both fields converge at the Shanghai Masters on October 7.
The women: the top of the ranking just changed hands
Elena Rybakina arrives as the No. 1 seed and plays her first tournament as world No. 1, having taken the ranking and then the US Open title from Aryna Sabalenka in the space of a week. Sabalenka is seeded second, her 99-week run at the top now over.
The seeding order behind them: Jessica Pegula (3), Coco Gauff (4), Mirra Andreeva (5), Linda Nosková (6), Elina Svitolina (7), Karolína Muchová (8), Iga Świątek (9) and Marta Kostyuk (10), who plays her first event since breaking into the top 10. Defending champion Amanda Anisimova is seeded 11th.
There's a wrinkle worth understanding, because it will drive the ranking coverage all fortnight. Beijing falls a week later on the 2026 calendar, so players are defending their 2025 Beijing results and their 2025 Wuhan results in the same window. Anisimova is defending 1,000 points from her Beijing title. Gauff is defending 1,390 across the two. Pegula is defending 1,040. Nosková is defending 770. A quiet week in Beijing costs those four considerably more than it costs anyone else.
Three players who would have been seeded withdrew before the tournament: Victoria Mboko (left knee), Alexandra Eala (a scheduling conflict with the Asian Games) and Madison Keys.
What's actually transferable here
This is the part of the calendar that looks most like the tennis you play. Beijing is best-of-three for both tours, on a medium-paced hard court, with a bye structure that hands top seeds a first-round rest — which means a slow start isn't survivable the way it was at a major. Shelton lost the first set in four separate matches at the US Open and still made the final. That math does not exist here.
Two things worth watching with your own game in mind:
First two service games. In a best-of-three, a single early break is close to half the set. Watch how the top seeds serve at 0-0 and 1-1 — it's almost always higher first-serve percentage and lower ambition than what they hit at 4-4.
Second-serve return position. Zverev beat Khachanov in the US Open semifinal while losing the first-serve battle, because he won 50 percent of second-serve return points to Khachanov's 40. The move is simple and free: stand where you always do on the first serve, then step two feet in the moment you see a second ball.
What's next
The men's event finishes October 6, with the women's running to October 11. The Shanghai Masters follows immediately, October 7–18.
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