The Singapore Tennis Open presented by BNP Paribas opened its main draw at OCBC Arena on 21 September 2026, and by the end of Monday’s play, three of the seeds’ likeliest first-round opponents had been swapped out by players ranked outside the top 100. That is the fun part of a WTA 500 with a 28-player draw: there is nowhere to hide, and Day 1 proved it.
Some context for anyone who last thought about Singapore tennis a year ago. This tournament ran as a WTA 250 in 2025 and has been upgraded to WTA 500 status for 2026, which is the tier just below the big mandatory events. The prize pool sits at roughly US$1.2 million, the singles draw holds 28 players and the doubles draw 16 teams, and play runs to 27 September. A stronger tier pulls a stronger field, and a stronger field makes the first round genuinely dangerous.
The Roland Garros Finalist Who Is Still Adjusting
The name to know is Maja Chwalinska. The Polish left-hander reached the Roland Garros final earlier this year, a run that came out of nowhere and turned her into one of the season’s best stories, and she arrived in Singapore seeded fifth at world No. 25. She beat Rebecca Sramkova 6-4, 6-2 on Monday, wobbling only once when she went from 5-2 to 5-4 in the first set before a backhand slice forced the error that settled it.
What makes her worth following isn’t the scoreline. It’s how openly she talks about the strangeness of being watched.
“Before, people didn’t really care about how I was playing. Now I can feel the attention. I think it’s a lot,” she said after the win. “I’m very grateful for it, because I got so many great fans. But it’s definitely different, and I needed to adapt. I think I’m still adapting, but I’m doing better.”
She also pushed back, gently, on the idea that indoor hard court is a downgrade from her clay breakthrough. “I still have time,” she said. “I move well, which helps everywhere. I just try to be more precise at a higher tempo. The girls are playing pretty quick, so you gotta get used to it.” That is a 20-something recalibrating in public, which is relatable whether or not you can hit a backhand slice.
6-0 Second Sets Are Not Polite
The biggest upset of the day belonged to Aliaksandra Sasnovich, ranked No. 130, who beat No. 84 Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 6-0. The second set is the tell: Sasnovich served for the first at 5-4, got broken, then won the last two games of the set and every game after it. Her flat, low shots do real damage on this surface, especially off the backhand.
Her reward is top seed Mirra Andreeva, the world No. 5 and this year’s Roland Garros champion, on Wednesday. Sasnovich was unbothered. “It’s my first time in Singapore. I’m really enjoying the people, the atmosphere, the hotel,” she said, before admitting she had “already spent a lot of money on shopping here”. Priorities.
Then there’s Nao Hibino, the Japanese player ranked No. 190, who is quietly the most entertaining thing about this tournament so far. She won a qualifying thriller on Sunday to reach the main draw, then beat France’s Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 on Monday. She saved two set points at 4-5 in the first, lost four straight games from 3-1 up in the second, went down a break in the third, saved three break points, got broken serving for the match at 5-3, and won it anyway. Two matches in two days, both decided on the last few points.
“I didn’t have any regrets, just really wanted to win by leaving everything on the court,” Hibino said. “Here, I feel like I’m home. I love Asian food, and all this is why I’m very comfortable with everything in Asia.”
Monday was rough for France generally: wildcard Fiona Ferro went out to Australia’s Talia Gibson 6-3, 6-3, which sets Gibson up against second seed Amanda Anisimova.
2 Hours 20 Minutes for a 6-2, 6-3
Leylah Fernandez is the wildcard whose presence here is a small logistics miracle. The Canadian, a former US Open finalist, had visa problems that cost her a trip to Sao Paulo, and Singapore handed her a wildcard instead. She beat Japanese qualifier Kyoka Okamura 6-2, 6-3 in a match that took 2 hours 20 minutes, with the first set alone eating over 1 hour 10 minutes.
The break-point numbers explain where the time went. Fernandez saved 11 of 13 break points; Okamura saved 17 of 22. Okamura also saved three match points before Fernandez finally closed it out. A set point in there featured a tweener from Okamura answered by a drop shot, then another drop shot, which Fernandez called one of her highlights of the year.
“The Singapore tournament was super nice to give me a wild card, which was amazing. I’m truly grateful,” she said. On the tournament’s new tier: “It’s super nice that Singapore is a 500. And, you know, we’ll see if it goes even a little bit higher!”
The Tennis Is Only Part of It
The Kallang has built the week out into something you can wander through rather than just sit and watch. The Feel Alive Zone has an interactive Wilson court and table tennis, Break Point Garden runs selected free live screenings from 21 to 27 September alongside DJ sets and food vendors, and player meet-and-greets ran from 21 to 25 September. Qualifying on 19 and 20 September was free to attend, which is the kind of access most WTA 500 stops don’t offer.
There’s a charity mechanic too, and it’s a neat one: presenting sponsor BNP Paribas is converting every point scored in the tournament into a donation to Daughters of Tomorrow, a Singapore charity working on women’s financial independence. Every Hibino third-set marathon is, technically, fundraising.
If you’re picking one match to chase from here, take Sasnovich against Andreeva. A No. 130 who just handed out a 6-0 set against the world No. 5 with a title to defend at a level she has never lost at in Singapore is the kind of mismatch that occasionally isn’t one. Second choice is anything with Hibino’s name on it, purely on the evidence of her last 48 hours.
🗓️ Dates: Monday, 21 September to Sunday, 27 September 2026 (main draw)
⏰ Day 1 start: 11am on 21 September 2026
📍 Location: OCBC Arena, The Kallang, Singapore
🎾 Tier: WTA 500, 28-player singles draw and 16-team doubles draw
💰 Prize money: Approximately US$1.2 million
🎪 Fringe: Feel Alive Zone, Break Point Garden free screenings 21 to 27 September, player meet-and-greets 21 to 25 September
❤️ Charity: Every point scored converts into a donation to Daughters of Tomorrow
Singapore’s sporting calendar is crowded this month, with the tennis landing in the same stretch as the Grand Prix noise around Marina Bay and a long list of other things worth doing in September. This one deserves a slot anyway. A WTA 500 draw this small means every round is a potential upset, the fringe programming means you can turn up without a centre-court ticket and still have a day out, and the final is on Sunday. Follow the Singapore Tennis Open presented by BNP Paribas and The Kallang on their official channels for the order of play, results and next year’s ticket drop!
Visuals courtesy of The Kallang for the Singapore Tennis Open presented by BNP Paribas.
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