Wuhan Open 2026 Betting Tips: Outright Picks and Value

Wuhan is the last WTA 1000 of the season, and the 2026 draw, made on 10 October, has lost both the defending champion and the world No. 1: Coco Gauff withdrew with fatigue and Elena Rybakina with a foot injury, and the third seed Mirra Andreeva, China Open champion Zheng Qinwen and Linda Nosková have since followed. That leaves Aryna Sabalenka, a three-time champion here, as top seed in a 56-player draw where the top eight seeds have first-round byes.

Result, 18 October: Maja Chwalińska won the title, beating Sonay Kartal 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the final for the first title of her career, and none of our three picks reached the quarter-finals. She beat Iga Świątek 7-5, 6-1 in the semi-finals, and Kartal beat Jelena Ostapenko 7-6(9), 7-6(5). Our report on the final has the detail, and the analysis below was written when the draw was reshuffled on 12 October.

Our Wuhan Open Picks

Jessica Pegula to win

Update, 15 October: this pick has gone. Pegula lost 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-3 to Jelena Ostapenko in the second round. The reasoning we gave before the tournament is left below.

Jessica Pegula is the No. 2 seed and the 2025 runner-up, beaten by Gauff 6-4, 7-5 in the final after she ended Sabalenka’s 20-match unbeaten run here in the semi-finals. She is in the bottom half, so she cannot meet Sabalenka before the final. After a bye she plays Jelena Ostapenko or a qualifier, with Alex Eala (13) seeded in the third round and Karolína Muchová (6) in the quarter-finals. She did not play in Beijing, so she arrives fresher than most of the top eight.

Marta Kostyuk, each-way

Update, 14 October: this pick has gone. Kostyuk lost 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 to Maria Sakkari in the second round. The reasoning we gave before the tournament is left below.

Marta Kostyuk is the No. 8 seed and her quarter has opened up, since Andreeva’s withdrawal gave Iva Jović (10) a bye in the same section. After a bye she plays Maria Sakkari or Donna Vekić, with Pohánková, the wildcard who beat Anna Bondar 6-1, 6-3, in her path, and Jović seeded to be her quarter-final opponent. She did not play in Beijing, so she arrives fresh, although she lost her last Grand Slam match, a 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 defeat by Nosková in the US Open fourth round. The semi-final would be against the Sabalenka or Świątek quarter, which is why we would play her each-way rather than to win.

Nikola Bartůňková, the outsider

Update, 15 October: this pick has gone. Bartůňková lost 7-6(5), 6-3 to Jasmine Paolini in the second round. The reasoning we gave before the tournament is left below.

Bartůňková, the No. 26 seed in Beijing, beat Sabalenka 6-4, 6-3 in the third round and Muchová 6-3, 6-0 in the quarter-finals before losing 6-2, 6-2 to Andreeva in the semi-finals. She is unseeded in Wuhan and opens against Lilli Tagger, and the third quarter is open behind Elina Svitolina (5), who lost in Beijing, and Belinda Bencic (9), who comes in for the withdrawn Nosková. For a player at a bigger price, a run to the quarter-finals is realistic, although a fortnight in Beijing is a lot of tennis.

The Sabalenka Question

Sabalenka is 3-for-3 in finals here and won her first 20 matches in Wuhan, so she will be at the head of the outright market. She lost to Bartůňková in the Beijing third round, and her quarter holds Iga Świątek (7) and Elise Mertens (14) on seeding, with a second-round match against Ann Li or the lucky loser Camila Osorio first. At a short price we would rather have Pegula from the other half. Our Sabalenka v Pegula head-to-head has the record between them.

Players to Oppose

Świątek (7) and Svitolina (5) both went out in the Beijing quarter-finals, Świątek 7-6(0), 6-3 to Mertens and Svitolina 6-3, 7-6(6) to Zheng. Both have byes and a kind second round, but neither arrives in the kind of form that makes them a title bet.

First-Round Matches Worth a Look

• Ann Li v Camila Osorio: Osorio is a lucky loser who came in when Zheng withdrew, and the winner plays Sabalenka in the second round.
• Elise Mertens v Daria Snigur: Mertens beat Gauff and Świątek on the way to the Beijing semi-finals, losing 7-5, 6-2 to Zheng. Snigur beat Jasmine Paolini in Beijing and lost 6-2, 6-2 to Andreeva in the round of 16.
• Katie Boulter v Diana Shnaider (11): Boulter lost 7-6(3), 6-1 to Muchová in the Beijing second round, and Shnaider lost to Alexandrova in the third.
• Alex Eala (13) v Han Shi: the qualifier took Zheng to three sets in the Beijing first round and won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, so Eala (13) is out and Han Shi meets Leylah Fernández, who beat Alexandrova 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in the second round.

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More Coverage

Read our Wuhan Open preview for the full draw. Full coverage sits on our Wuhan Open hub, every event we follow is in the tournaments index, and the dates are in the 2026 tennis calendar.