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Elena Rybakina won the women's singles tennis title at the 2023 Italian Open after Anhelina Kalinina retired from the final with the scoreline at 6–4, 1–0. It was Rybakina's second career WTA 1000 title. Rybakina won three of her six matches at the tournament via retirement: over Anna Kalinskaya in the third round, Iga Świątek in the quarterfinals, and Kalinina in the final. With the win, Rybakina entered the top five in the WTA rankings for the first time at world No. 4.
Świątek was the two-time defending champion, but retired in the quarterfinals against Rybakina due to a hip injury. Świątek was attempting to be the first woman to win three consecutive titles in Rome since Conchita Martínez in 1995.
The following are the seeded players. Seedings are based on WTA rankings as of 24 April 2023. Rankings and points before are as of 8 May 2023.
Because the women's tournament is being expanded to two weeks this year, players are defending points from the 2022 Italian Open, as well as tournaments that took place during the week of 16 May 2022 (Rabat and Strasbourg). Points from the 2022 Italian Open are listed first in the "Points defending" column.
The event is not mandatory on the women's side and points from the 2022 Italian Open are included in the table below only if they counted towards the player's ranking as of 8 May 2023. For other players, the points defending column shows the lower of (a) points from the player's second-highest non-mandatory WTA 1000 tournament (which are required to be counted in her ranking) or (b) her 16th best result.
Points defending will be replaced at the end of the tournament by the highest of (a) the player's points from the 2023 tournament, (b) her 17th best result, or (c) points from her second-highest non-mandatory WTA 1000 event.
† Points from the player's 16th best result (for points defending) or 17th best result (for points earned), in each case as of 8 May 2023.
‡ Points from the player's second-best non-mandatory WTA 1000 event, which are required to be counted in her ranking.
§ The player is only defending points from Rabat or Strasbourg.
^ The player is defending points from Karlsruhe (WTA 125 tournament) and Strasbourg.
& No change in points because points from this tournament did not count as one of the player's 16 best results.
Withdrawn players
The following players would have been seeded, but withdrew before the tournament began.