Maria Sakkari shook off a rough start to down Linda Fruhvirtová 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of the 2026 Singapore Open on Tuesday. The seventh-seeded Greek star trailed 4-2 in the opening set before scoring four straight games to grab the lead at the WTA 500 tournament.
Once she found her rhythm, however, the match tilted quickly in her favor.
Sakkari Scores Needed Win at Singapore's WTA 500 Event
From there, the second set was all Maria Sakkari.
Fruhvirtová lost control of her toss, handing over multiple double faults on her serve. Sakkari capitalized with an eight-game winning streak that put the result out of reach by 5-1. The whole Asian swing match wrapped up in just over an hour.
That kind of efficiency has been hard to come by for Sakkari lately. The former No. 3 has dealt with inconsistent stretches across the 2025 and 2026 WTA seasons, often bowing out early despite moments of strong play. But Tuesday's clean and composed performance suggested her form may be steadying.
Up next, Sakkari meets Nao Hibino of Japan in the second round. A win would move her into the Round of 16, while also putting her on a collision course with tournament favorite Alexandra Eala.
The 2026 WTA Tour's Asian swing is underway, as the Singapore Open and Korea Open feature multiple champions in both scheduled draws.
2026 Singapore Open Schedule & Field
The Singapore Open launched in 1986 but has far fewer than 40 champions. The trophy went unheld from 1991 to 1993, and again from 1995 to 2024. The event returned to the WTA calendar last year, when fourth seed Elise Mertens won the title.
The field has taken some hits. Top-seeded US Open semifinalist Jessica Pegula withdrew from the WTA 500 event, while No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova pulled out Tuesday citing a left wrist injury. That leaves French Open champion Mirra Andreeva as the new top seed, with Filipina phenom Alexandra Eala next in the draw.
Eala's recent rise has sparked a frenzy. Nike rolled out custom merchandise featuring the sampaguita, the national flower of the Philippines, and fans of the DC Open winner lined up for hours to shop it.
Top Tennis Stars Headline 2026 Korea Open
The Korea Open is a smaller WTA 250 event running alongside Singapore. Grand Slam champion and Latvian standout Jelena Ostapenko leads the field as its top seed.
Together, the two tournaments give the WTA Tour a stacked start to its fall stretch across the Eastern Hemisphere.
A federal judge has thrown out Tara Moore's $20 million WTA lawsuit, dealing another blow as the former British doubles No. 1 serves a four-year doping ban from tennis for anabolic steroid use.
US District Judge Andrew Carter dismissed the case in New York, finding no legal basis for Moore's claim that the arbitrator denied her a fair hearing or overstepped their authority. The WTA did not immediately comment. Moore has always denied knowingly taking a banned substance.
Tara Moore's WTA Tour Doping Ban Explained
Moore, 34, was provisionally suspended in 2022 after testing positive for two banned substances — boldenone and nandrolone — at a tennis tournament in Colombia. She argued the WTA Tour failed to warn players about the risk of eating meat contaminated with steroids.
Nineteen months later, an independent tribunal found she bore "no fault or negligence" and cleared her. However, the International Tennis Integrity Agency appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled Moore did not prove that meat contamination explained the nandrolone in her sample.
The tennis vet subsequently called the WTA's anti-drug policy "broken" and the process "subjective." Her ban ends in December 2027.
Jessica Pegula won't compete at the 2026 Singapore Open. The world No. 3 pulled out of the WTA 500 tournament on Thursday, citing fatigue after a nonstop stretch on the WTA tour schedule.
"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," Pegula said.
Packed WTA Schedule Sidelines Jessica Pegula in Singapore
Her withdrawal comes off the back of a busy summer. Pegula reached the US Open semifinals for the second straight year after making the finals in both DC and Cincinnati beforehand. Across the hard-court swing, she posted 15 wins in 24 matches.
But that packed WTA schedule appears to have caught up with her. Pegula had been the top seed in Singapore, and her exit shakes up the draw. Kristina Mladenovic steps in as her replacement, while Mirra Andreeva now becomes the highest-ranked player in the field. Other top-ranked breakouts like Amanda Anisimova and Alexandra Eala will also compete at this year's tournament.
It's now unclear when Pegula will next appear on the WTA tour circuit.
The Singapore Open runs September 21-27 with the China Open following on September 30th, live on Tennis Channel.
Aryna Sabalenka racked up $7,500 in penalties during a volatile US Open 2026 final against Elena Rybakina. The two-time defending champion received a ball abuse warning, a racket abuse code violation, and an audible obscenity citation… all in one match.
What Led to Aryna Sabalenka's Racket Smash Penalty?
The trouble started in the first set after Rybakina broke Sabalenka's serve. Sabalenka launched a ball into the stands, prompting chair umpire Greg Allensworth to issue a warning. She struck another ball in frustration later in the match, that time nearly hitting a cameraman.
After Rybakina closed out the match 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, Sabalenka returned to her bench area and hammered her racket against the ground. Then, she cursed at a camera operator ahead of the trophy presentation.
"It's really tough to control your emotions when you lose in the final of the Grand Slam," Sabalenka said afterward. "I wanted to let all of that aggression and disappointment."
The USTA fine will be deducted from her $2.8 million in runner-up prize money. Still, the financial hit is minor compared to what Sabalenka lost on court.
Rybakina's win, her third Grand Slam title, ended Sabalenka's 20-match US Open winning streak and her three-peat bud. It also knocked her from the WTA's No. 1 ranking after 99 weeks on top.
Marta Kostyuk scored a quarterfinal berth at the 2026 Guadalajara Open before even stepping foot onto the WTA court. The top-seeded Ukrainian received a second-round walkover for the WTA 500 event after Taylor Townsend withdrew to undergo emergency surgery.
Mystery Illness Derails Taylor Townsend's Tournament Hopes
Townsend shared the news via Instagram, writing, "This s*** definitely wasn't on my bingo card. Through trials and tribulations… still I rise."
The withdrawal cut short what had been a promising week for the US star. Just days earlier, Townsend fought back from a first-set tiebreak loss to beat Tatjana Maria 6-7(0), 6-3, 6-2 in the opening round.
Before that, she and doubles partner Kateřina Siniaková completed a career Grand Slam by winning the 2026 US Open title. The pair have now captured all four major doubles trophies across three seasons.
Marta Kostyuk Look to Capitalize on Guadalajara Open Walkover
Meanwhile, Kostyuk's path through the draw has been relatively quiet so far.
The world No. 10 earned a first-round bye and now advances to face eighth-seeded Liudmila Samsonova, who edged past Kayla Day in a tight three-setter.
Among other WTA scores from the tournament's second round, No. 2 seed Iva Jovic topped Zeynep Sonmez 7-6(5), 6-4, and Magdalena Frech eliminated Caroline Dolehide 6-4, 6-3.
Elena Rybakina became the first player to score a spot at the 2026 WTA Finals at Indian Wells. The top-ranked tennis star leads the race with 7,492 points after Australian Open and US Open wins this season, while also entering as the tournament's defending champion.
WTA Finals: Where Rankings Leaders Stand Today
The rest of the women's tennis field has ground to make up.
Seven WTA Finals tickets remain, and the margins between contenders are thin. No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka sits second with 6,485 points following her Sunshine Double sweep earlier this season. Meanwhile, US stars Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff hold the third and fourth positions, separated by fewer than 200 points.
Then there's 19-year-old Mirra Andreeva. The Roland Garros champion currently ranks fifth, boosted by her US Open quarterfinals finish. Just below her, Elina Svitolina and Karolína Muchová round out the Top 7 as it stands today.
Linda Nosková, the 2026 Wimbledon winner, scored the eighth and final qualifying spot with 4,234 points. But the race leaves little room for error. Six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Świątek lurks at No. 10, just outside the cut after a recent title run in Toronto ended an 11-month drought.
However, with two WTA 1000 events still to go, the picture could shift quickly.
The WTA is planting a new flag, announcing plans to move the season-ending WTA Finals to Charlotte’s Spectrum Center — home to the NBA’s Hornets — starting in 2027.
Chair Valerie Camillo framed the decision as a bid to create “the Super Bowl for women’s sports,” pitching the 1000-level event as a gathering for women’s tennis and its related businesses.
The Tour is also relocating its headquarters from Florida to North Carolina, while fully taking over WTA Finals operations for the first time.
The WTA recently cut ties with previous host Saudi Arabia, holding this year’s event at California’s Indian Wells amid rising conflict in the Middle East.
Slotting into an active NBA arena means shrinking the tournament from eight days to five, as officials weigh new formats to accommodate four singles and four doubles matches per day.
“We have an incredible opportunity to build an event that matches the scale, energy, and ambition of women’s sports today,” Camillo said. “In North Carolina, we found partners who believe just as strongly.”
Sloane Stephens scored a 2026 Guadalajara Open quarterfinal berth on Tuesday after a tight, two-tiebreak win over Janice Tjen. The 2017 US Open champion prevailed 7-6(4), 7-6(3) against the fifth-seeded Indonesian at the WTA 500 event in Mexico. The match ran just under two hours in their debut head-to-head WTA Tour battle.
WTA Veteran Sloane Stephens Edges Janice Tjen in Tiebreaks
Tjen entered the round of 16 with momentum after scoring a 7-6(5), 6-2 WTA 500 win over Czech player Darja Vidmanova in the first round. Her serve posed problems all afternoon, producing 11 aces to just two from Stephens.
Still, neither player managed a break in the opening set, needing a tiebreak to decide it. Stephens pulled ahead early and closed it 7-4.
But the second frame looked a bit different.
Tjen built a 5-2 lead, earning two chances to take the set. However, the 33-year-old US star then won three consecutive games to draw level at 5-5. Another tiebreak followed, and she proved steadier once more, taking it 7-3. Despite the lopsided ace count, Stephens won 80 total points to Tjen's 74.
On the other side of the bracket, Peyton Stearns upset fourth-seeded Diane Parry 6-2, 7-5. That result puts Stearns and Stephens on course for tomorrow's all-US quarterfinal, live on Tennis Channel.
Simone Biles swapped the balance beam for the front row at this year's New York Fashion Week. The 11-time Olympic medalist sat beside Venus Williams at the Simkhai Spring 2027 NYFW presentation, sporting a plum A-line dress with matching knee-high boots.
But she wasn't the only athlete making an entrance in Manhattan.
Alexandra Eala Joins Women's Sports Athletes in NYFW Takeover
Alexandra Eala subsequently logged the busiest NYFW schedule of any sports figure. She appeared at Calvin Klein, Tory Burch, and Michael Kors across the week. Coming off her first WTA title and solid US Open run, the Filipino tennis sensation also crossed paths with Anna Wintour — who called herself a "big fan."
"I love that in tennis, we're able to express ourselves through fashion," Eala said.
Beyond Biles and Eala, the runway-to-arena pipeline kept growing. Two-time Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles wore a black feathered dress and rhinestone heels to the Simkhai show. Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd went with a laid-back varsity jacket look at Coach. And six-time Olympic medalist Suni Lee brought a preppy edge to Tommy Hilfiger.
The fashion world has long embraced women athletes, as Olympic gymnasts, WNBA rookies, and WTA rising stars pull front-row seats at this season's NYFW.