'23 WTA 500 Tokyo 9/25 - 10/1 2023

[ti-amie]

Tournament: Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Dates: September 25 - October 1, 2023
Level: WTA 500
Prize Money: $780,637
Surface: Hard

Seed Name Entry Ranking

1 Iga Swiatek 1
2 Jessica Pegula 3
3 Elena Rybakina 4
4 Caroline Garcia 7
5 Maria Sakkari 8
6 Marketa Vondrousova 9
7 Karolina Muchova 10
8 Barbora Krejcikova 12
Belinda Bencic 13
Daria Kasatkina 14
Liudmila Samsonova 15
Veronika Kudermetova 16
Ekaterina Alexandrova 20
Donna Vekic 22
Karolina Pliskova 25
(WC) Top 20
(WC) Top 20
Nao Hibino (WC)
Moyuka Uchijima (WC)
(Q)
(Q)
(Q)
(Q)
(Q)
(Q)
(SE)

[ti-amie]

Qualifying Draw

A. Krueger (1)/Bye
R. Matsuda (WC) vs M. Doi (7)

M. Hontama (2) vs S. Imamura (WC)
N. Melichar-Martinez vs S. Saito (12)

H. Dart (3) vs S. Ishii (WC)
O. Kalashnikova vs Y. Naito (10)

H. Sakatsume (4) vs N. Hanatani
B. Schoofs vs N. Kawaguchi (9)

D. Papamichail (5) vs L. Marozava
E. Shibahara vs E. Perez (11)

S. Hosogi (6) vs C. Muramatsu (WC)
G. Olmos vs R. Saigo (8)

[ashkor87]

Strong field..missing the USO finalists though...
Wonder if Osaka will try...too early I would think..

[JTContinental]

I think her plan is AO24

[ponchi101]

She said so. 2024 is the start.
But I don't think it would be that bad to try it here. Sort of hometown, and just having her in the entry list would help the tournament. Gauge how far you have progressed and then you have three more months to move forward.

[meganfernandez]

A 500 tournament only has direct entry for 15 players?? Insane.

[ponchi101]

How big is this draw?
Yes, that is insane. There is a lot of people talking about players not being able to make a living on the tour. I mean, make it 32, and spread the prize money, and away with byes.
And that is something that the WTA can do all by itself.

[meganfernandez]

How big is this draw?
Yes, that is insane. There is a lot of people talking about players not being able to make a living on the tour. I mean, make it 32, and spread the prize money, and away with byes.
And that is something that the WTA can do all by itself.

32 players, 4 byes. Agree, 32 players and more main-draw spots.

[ti-amie]

Main Draw Singles

(1) I. Świątek/BYE
Qualifier vs N. Hibino
K. Day vs M. Uchijima
Qualifier vs (8) V. Kudermetova

(3) E. Rybakina vs L. Noskova
A. Pavlyuchenkova vs D. Vekic
A. Kalinskaya vs E. Alexandrova
T. Maria vs (7) L. Samsonova

(5) C. Garcia/BYE
A. Krueger vs A. Kalinina
P. Martic vs Qualifier
BYE/(4) M. Sakkari

(6) D. Kasatkina vs M. Kostyuk
Qualifier vs Qualifier
C. Bucsa vs Qualifier
BYE/(2) J. Pegula

[Jeff from TX]

Does anyone know why Rybakina didn't get a bye and Garcia did? This means that the bottom half has 3 draws and the top only 1 draw. And agree - a 16 player field? Strange. And how did Kayla Day get a spot? I didn't see her name in qualifying.

[skatingfan]

Strong field..missing the USO finalists though...
Wonder if Osaka will try...too early I would think..

I think her plan is AO24

She said so. 2024 is the start.
But I don't think it would be that bad to try it here. Sort of hometown, and just having her in the entry list would help the tournament. Gauge how far you have progressed and then you have three more months to move forward.

In an interview with ESPN at the US Open, Chris McKendry reported that Osaka said that she hadn't started hitting yet, only working on fitness, but that she would start hitting soon.

[ti-amie]

She's pissed because the numbers 1,2,4 and 5 seeds got byes while she, the #3 seed didn't.

[ashkor87]

That is very odd..can the tournament really do that?

[ashkor87]

Garcia and Sakkari probably got byes because they went deep in the previous tournament and had to fly across the globe and almost 24 hours time zones to the next one...but calling it performance bye is not good

[ashkor87]

WTA could not punish those who pulled out of Guadalajara so rewarding those who did play?