ATP year-end race head to Basel and Vienna, while Zheng Qinwen leads 2024's final WTA 500 in Tokyo

Call it a rebuilding week. The signature Asian-swing tournaments in Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan are behind us. The big season-ending fixtures in Bercy, Riyadh, and Turin are on the horizon. Last week the tours began that transition slowly, with a slew of 250s. This week things begin to escalate with three traditionally prestigious 500s—in Vienna and Basel on the men’s side, and at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on the women’s.

Who’s playing, and what are the year-end race ramifications? Here’s a look at the draws ahead.

Erste Bank Open (ATP)

• Vienna
• $2,830,000; ATP 500
• Indoor hard courts
• Draw is here

Alexander Zverev, of neighboring Germany, is the top seed in Vienna, but he’s not the player with the most on the line. The ATP’s No. 3 is one of three men, along with No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, who have already clinched a spot in the tour’s season-ending championships, which start Nov. 10 in Turin.

Everyone else is scrambling to grab one of the five spots left. That includes several players who still have a chance to make it: Alex de Minaur is ninth in the race, Tommy Paul is 10th (after a title run this past week in Stockholm), Grigor Dimitrov is 11th, Frances Tiafoe is 14th, and Lorenzo Musetti and Jack Draper are a somewhat distant 16th and 17th.

And then there’s Dominic Thiem. The 31-year-old Austrian native, who won this tournament in 2019, will end his career this week in front of his home-country fans. He plays 44th-ranked Luciano Darderi in the first round.

Swiss Indoors Basel (ATP)

• Basel, Switzerland
• $2,750,000; ATP 500
• Indoor hard court
• Draw is here

Unlike in Vienna, no one in Basel has secured a spot in ATP Finals, which means this field will be in full scramble mode. Top seeds Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev currently occupy the seventh and eighth positions in the race to Turin, while Stefanos Tsitsipas and Holger Rune are 12th and 15th, respectively.

Neither Rune nor Tsitsipas has an easy opener—the Dane plays Nicolas Jarry, while the Greek plays Francisco Cerundolo.

All of which makes it easy to overlook No. 8 seed Felix Auger Aliassime, who is the two-time defending champion at this event. He’ll start against Sebastian Baez, and could face Ruud in the third round.

Also here: Marin Cilic, who won this tournament eight years ago. The 36-year-old will open against Alejandro Tabilo.

Toray Pan Pacific Open (WTA)

• Tokyo
• $922,573; WTA 500
• Hard court
• Draw is here

The Pan Pacific Open has been a WTA institution since the tour’s earliest days; Billie Jean King won the inaugural edition in 1973, around the same time that she was winning the Battle of the Sexes.

Fifty years later, the tournament still has its prestige. It’s a 500, with a million dollar purse, and boasts gold medalist Zheng Qinwen as its top seed. But it took a hit last week when Japan’s Naomi Osaka, a three-time finalist and one-time champion here, pulled out with a back injury.

The WTA’s race to Riyadh has already been run, and its year-end field set. So Tokyo will be tennis for its own sake. Beatriz Haddad Maia, Ningbo winner Daria Kasatkina, Anna Kalinskaya and Paula Badosa are among the other seeds.

Guangzhou Open (WTA)

• Guangzhou, China
• $267,082; WTA 250
• Hard court
• Draw is here

Rounding out the week is this late entrant in the Asian swing. The top two seeds are Czech mates Katerina Siniakova and Marie Bouzkova.