Chengdu Open: Vacherot Tops Seeds as Tabilo Seeks Second Title

Qualifying opens at the Sichuan International Tennis Center in Chengdu on Tuesday, with the ATP 250 main draw set to begin on Wednesday — and Valentin Vacherot arrives as the top seed for the first time at this level of event.

The Monégasque, now 27, spent the better part of a decade on the fringes of the ATP Tour before an extraordinary week in Shanghai transformed his career. At the 2025 Masters 1000 event he arrived ranked No. 204 in the world, yet he defeated Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals and then beat his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in the final to claim the first ATP title for a Monégasque player in the Open Era. That victory catapulted him to a career high of No. 16 in May 2026. He arrives in Chengdu firmly inside the top 20 and with expectations that would have been unimaginable two years ago.

Can Tabilo go back-to-back?

Alejandro Tabilo holds the title here and returns as the third seed, protected by a first-round bye. His 2025 triumph was won the hard way: the Chilean entered Chengdu that year with a 5–13 record, hampered by wrist and abdominal injuries, and still outlasted Lorenzo Musetti in a remarkable final — saving two championship points before closing out 6–3, 2–6, 7–6(5). Tabilo subsequently credited the unlikely victory with unlocking a resurgent 2026 season that the ATP Tour has described as "unbelievable". A successful title defence this week would be the clearest confirmation yet that the renaissance is permanent.

Davidovich Fokina, Hurkacz and the field

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina holds the No. 2 seeding and is one of the more dangerous players in the draw on the fast hard-court surface. The Spaniard's combination of relentless baseline aggression and the mental willingness to grind through adversity has produced results against higher-ranked opponents, and he begins as the most credible threat to prevent a Vacherot–Tabilo final. Hubert Hurkacz is seeded fifth; Denis Shapovalov enters at seven, the Canadian's left-handed serve and unpredictable ball-striking capable of derailing any game plan across a best-of-three format.

Draw and schedule

Qualifying continues on Wednesday before first-round main-draw matches get under way on Wednesday afternoon local time. The final is scheduled for Sunday, 27 September. Now in its eighth edition, the Chengdu Open is a fixture on the Asian hard-court swing that runs alongside the WTA 250 in Seoul and the WTA 500 in Singapore this week.

No player in the current draw has yet won more than one ATP title in 2026. With Tabilo's defending status, Vacherot's trajectory and Davidovich Fokina's raw threat, the outcome of a tournament that rarely produces straightforward weeks looks genuinely open heading into the first serve on Wednesday.

Prize money totals were not immediately confirmed for the 2026 edition, but the Chengdu Open has historically distributed ranking points equivalent to a standard ATP 250. The winner collects 250 points — meaningful currency for mid-table players pushing into the top 30 with autumn Masters events still to come.