The Japan Women’s Open is a professional tennis tournament on the women’s circuit. The outdoor hard court event began in 2009 and is currently a part of the WTA 250 series of tournaments. It has been held in Hiroshima, Tokyo, and Osaka.
The tournament highlights a singles and a doubles event. Both events are played through the single elimination knockout draw format. The bracket size for the singles and doubles events is 32 and 16 respectively. The singles draw has four spots for qualifiers (who are chosen based on their prior performance in a qualifying draw of 16) and three spots for wild card entrants. A total of 16 pairs can enter in the doubles main draw.
Players or teams win a match when they win two out of three sets. A set is won by the player or pair winning six games with a difference of two. A game score of 6-6 forces a tiebreak, where the first to reach seven points with a difference of two wins the set. In doubles, if the match progresses to a deciding set, then a match tiebreak is played. The first team to reach ten points with a lead of at least two points wins the match.
The champions and runners-up receive 250 and 163 points respectively. A total of USD $267,080 is the prize pool of the event as of 2024. Of this, the singles champion gets USD $35,250 whereas the champion doubles team gets USD $12,820.
Samantha Stosur is the most successful player of the tournament having won three singles titles. Japan’s Shuko Aoyama has been a part of three champions doubles pairs which is the most for any player at the event as of 2024.
