Tennis players from Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia occupy the top three spots in the newly released Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings. Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka and Mirra Andreeva make up the world's top three in women's tennis, according to infohub.kz.

Poor performances at the Beijing 1000 event, where Rybakina lost in the first round and Sabalenka in the second, did not prevent the Kazakh and Belarusian from holding onto the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Andreeva, a native of Krasnoyarsk, climbed to No. 3 for the first time in her career.

The 19-year-old Russian reached the final of the 2026 China Open, where she lost to home favorite Zheng Qinwen (23) 5-7, 4-6. The ranking points Andreeva earned in Beijing were enough for the 2026 French Open champion to overtake Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff in the rankings.

Sabalenka, Andreeva and Pegula are competing this week at the Wuhan 1000 event. Rybakina and defending champion Gauff withdrew for various reasons, and will consequently lose 215 and 1,000 ranking points, respectively.

Kazakhstan will be represented in the singles draw of the 2026 Wuhan Open by Yulia Putintseva, who qualified for the main draw. In the first round, the Kazakh player will face Zeynep Sonmez (58). At the 2026 Australian Open, the future two-time Asian Games bronze medalist defeated the Turkish player 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3.

Another 2026 Asian Games bronze medalist, 31-year-old Anna Danilina, will compete in the doubles event in Wuhan. Paired with 37-year-old Chinese player Zhang Shuai, she will begin in the second round. The Kazakh-Chinese duo is seeded second at the 2026 Wuhan Open.

There is a possibility that Danilina could also face Sonmez. For that to happen, the Turkish player, ranked 153rd in doubles, and Filipino Alexandra Eala (129) must get past the Ukrainian pair of Angelina Kalinina (143) and Dayana Yastremska (209).

The Wuhan Open women's tournament replaced the Japanese WTA 500 Pan Pacific Open in the tennis calendar in 2014. Since 2025, the Wuhan Open has held 1000-level status.

For well-known reasons that made the city of Wuhan infamous worldwide, the tournament was not held from 2020 to 2023. Previously, it was won by Czech Petra Kvitova (2014, 2016), American Venus Williams (2015), Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia (2017) and Aryna Sabalenka three times in a row (2018, 2019, 2024).