The 2026 North American hard-court swing kicks into action with the Washington DC Open and six top-20 WTA stars feature on this year’s entry list.
This year marks the 14th edition of the women’s tournament with the WTA 500 event getting underway on Monday, 27 July at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in DC, with the final set for Sunday, 2 August.
The unseeded Leylah Fernandez won the title last year as she defeated Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 6-2 in the final to win her fourth WTA Tour singles title and the Canadian will return to defend her crown.
But there are a couple of big-name players who featured in 2025 who won’t return as world No 2 Elena Rybakina and No 37 Emma Raducanu – who both reached the semi-final last year – have not entered.
World No 11 Marta Kostyuk and No 16 Iva Jovic were on the entry list, but they have withdrawn.
How Many Players Are On The Entry List And Who Are The Seeds?
The WTA 500 Mubadala Citi DC Open – as it is also known as for sponsorship reasons – is a 28-player singles draw tournament and 20 have earned entries via their position in the WTA Rankings, while four will earn wildcards and four will come through qualifying.
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So far, Jessica Pegula – who won the title in 2019 and 2021 – as well as Venus Williams and Zheng Qinwen have earned wildcards.
The eight highest-ranked players will be seeded with world No 3 Pegula headlining the draw as the No 1 seed with world No 10 Elina Svitolina the No 2 seed.
Naomi Osaka, Jasmine Paolini, Diana Shnaider, Anna Kalinskaya, Madison Keys and Fernandez are the other seeds.
The top four seeds will earn byes into the second round.
When Is The Draw For The Event?
The draw for the WTA 500 tournament is scheduled for Friday, July 24 in Washington DC.
Prize Money Available…
Fernandez earned $197,570 when she won the title in 2025 while runner-up Kalinskaya went home with a cheque of $121,880, but there will be a decent increase in earnings this year as the WTA reports the 2026 champion will receive a cheque of $252,000.
Full breakdown
First round: $17,440
Second round: $24,474
Quarter-final: $47,750
Semi-final: $90,900
Finalist: $155,000
Champion: $252,000
2026 Washington DC Open Entry List
1. Jessica Pegula (WC)
2. Elina Svitolina
3. Naomi Osaka
4. Jasmine Paolini
5. Diana Shnaider
6. Anna Kalinskaya
7. Madison Keys
8. Leylah Fernandez
Emma Navarro
Anastasia Potapova
Alex Eala
Clara Tauson
Ann Li
Xinyu Wang
Janice Tjen
Sara Bejlek
Magdalena Frech
Cristina Bucsa
Elisabetta Cocciaretto
Ludmilla Samsonova
Magda Linette
Zheng Qinwen (WC)
Venus Williams (WC)
TBC – WC
TBC – Qualifier
TBC – Qualifier
TBC – Qualifier
TBC – Qualifier
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