Two years after Sofia POLCANOVA of Austria stood on top of the podium in Linz, the European Women’s Singles title will once again be up for grabs, with a deep and experienced field heading to the European Championships in Ljubljana and several of the players who shaped the closing stages of the 2024 Championships ready for another challenge.
Arena Stožice will host the 2026 European Individual Championships from 11 to 18 October, and Women’s Singles will run throughout the eight-day programme. Qualification begins on Sunday and continues until Tuesday, before the main draw gets underway with the Round of 64 on Wednesday. The quarter-finals are scheduled for Saturday, with the semi-finals and title match on the final day of competition.
POLCANOVA arrives in Slovenia as the defending champion and one of the most decorated players in the field. The 32-year-old Austrian is the two-time reigning European Women’s Singles champion, having won the title in Munich in 2022 before successfully defending it in Linz two years later. She also won Women’s Doubles gold in Munich, while in Linz she added Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles silver. Her record at the Europe Top 16 includes silver medals in 2023 and 2024 and three bronze medals, while she also won Women’s Doubles silver at the 2025 World Championships in Doha.
Her 2024 campaign gathered momentum as the tournament progressed. After opening with a straight-games victory, she beat Veronika MATIUNINA of Ukraine 4-0 and then overcame Sweden’s Christina KALLBERG 4-0. In the quarter-finals, POLCANOVA defeated Germany’s Sabine WINTER 4-1 before overcoming Nina MITTELHAM, also of Germany, by the same score in the semi-final. In the title match, she beat Romania’s Bernadette SZOCS 4-1 to retain the European crown.
This time, however, Sabine WINTER will enter the competition as the No. 1 seed. The 33-year-old German arrives in Ljubljana as the reigning Europe Top 16 champion after winning the title in Montreux earlier this year. She is also a two-time European Women’s Doubles champion and a five-time European Team champion, with her most recent Team gold coming in Zadar in 2025. Her individual European Championships record includes Women’s Singles bronze from Munich in 2022.
WINTER was also among the leading contenders in Linz two years ago, reaching the quarter-finals before POLCANOVA ended her run with a 4-1 victory. Beyond European competition, she has won three World Championships Team bronze medals, in 2010, 2022 and 2026, as well as Mixed Team bronze at the 2025 World Cup and Singles bronze at the 2026 World Cup in Macau.
Bernadette SZOCS, the No. 2 seed and 2024 runner-up, returns with another opportunity to challenge for the title. The 31-year-old Romanian is the reigning European Women’s Singles silver medallist and also won Women’s Doubles silver in Linz. She is a three-time European champion, with Team titles from 2017 and 2019 and Women’s Doubles gold from Munich in 2022. At the Europe Top 16, SZOCS won gold in 2018, silver in 2019 and 2026 and bronze in 2021, 2022 and 2024. She was also a double champion at the 2023 European Games, winning both Women’s Singles and Team gold. Beyond Europe, she won Women’s Doubles silver at the 2025 World Championships in Doha and Team bronze in London in 2026.
SZOCS enjoyed an impressive journey to the Linz final. She opened her main-draw campaign with a 4-0 victory and continued past Sweden’s Linda BERGSTROM and Charlotte LUTZ of France before overcoming Spain’s Maria XIAO 4-1 in the semi-final.
The strength at the top of the draw extends even further. Germany’s Ying HAN is the No. 3 seed, while defending champion POLCANOVA is No. 4. HAN, 43, is a five-time European champion, with four Team titles and Mixed Doubles gold from Alicante in 2018. She has also won the Europe Top 16 three times, in 2022, 2023 and 2025, and has two European Games Team titles. Her international record includes Team silver at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and World Championships Team bronze in 2022 and 2026.
France’s Jia Nan YUAN follows among the leading entries. The 41-year-old won Mixed Doubles gold at the 2022 European Championships in Munich and Team bronze in Malmö in 2023, while she lifted the Europe Top 16 trophy in 2024 and returned to the podium with bronze in 2026. She was also part of the French team that won bronze at the 2024 World Championships in Busan.
Nina MITTELHAM adds further strength to the German challenge. The 29-year-old is a five-time European champion, with Women’s Doubles gold from 2018, Mixed Doubles gold from 2020 and three consecutive Team titles in 2021, 2023 and 2025. She was the Women’s Singles silver medallist in Munich in 2022 and took bronze in Linz two years later. MITTELHAM also has two European Games gold medals and World Championships Team bronze medals from Chengdu 2022 and London 2026.
France will arrive with considerable depth. Prithika PAVADE, 22, already has four senior European Championships bronze medals – two in Mixed Doubles and two in the Team event – and was part of France’s bronze-medal-winning team at the 2024 World Championships in Busan. Her compatriot Charlotte LUTZ, 21, won European Team bronze in Malmö in 2023 and World Championships Team bronze in Busan the following year.
Spain’s Maria XIAO was one of the major figures in Linz. The 32-year-old won the European Mixed Doubles title and reached the Women’s Singles semi-finals, taking bronze. She also has Women’s Doubles bronze from Munich in 2022.
Few players in Ljubljana can match the longevity of Romania’s Elizabeta SAMARA. At 37, she is an eight-time European champion, including the Women’s Singles title won in Yekaterinburg in 2015, alongside two Women’s Doubles, two Mixed Doubles and three Team crowns. Her European Championships collection also includes ten silver and six bronze medals. SAMARA won Europe Top 16 silver in 2025 and European Games Team gold in 2023, while beyond Europe she has World Championships Team bronze from London 2026 and World Cup Singles silver from 2012.
The strength of the field extends much further. Poland’s Natalia BAJOR, Portugal’s Fu YU and Jieni SHAO, Anna HURSEY of Wales, Christina KALLBERG of Sweden, Gaia MONFARDINI of Italy and Margaryta PESOTSKA of Ukraine are directly qualified for the main draw. Serbia’s Izabela LUPULESKU, Croatia’s Lea RAKOVAC, Italy’s Giorgia PICCOLIN, Germany’s Yuan WAN, Türkiye’s Sibel ALTINKAYA, England’s Tin-Tin HO, Ukraine’s Veronika MATIUNINA, Croatia’s Hana ARAPOVIC and Luxembourg’s Sarah DE NUTTE add further depth.
There will also be a significant qualification battle before the main draw takes shape. Women’s Singles has 127 entries, with 32 players directly qualified for the main draw and 95 entering the qualification stage. The players will compete in 31 round-robin groups, with all 31 group winners progressing. One lucky loser will then be drawn from the 31 second-placed players to complete the 64-player main draw.
Qualification matches are played best of five games, while all Women’s Singles matches in the main draw are best of seven.
POLCANOVA will arrive with the title in her hands, but No. 1 seed WINTER leads a formidable list of challengers. SZOCS returns after coming within one match of the crown in Linz, HAN brings vast experience to the No. 3 position, and MITTELHAM strengthens an impressive German presence. France counters with YUAN, PAVADE and LUTZ, while XIAO and SAMARA add further European pedigree to a field in which established champions and a new generation will compete for the Ljubljana crown.
