Switzerland's Belinda Bencic defeated the Czech Republic's Markéta Vondroušová in the final, 7–5, 2–6, 6–3, to win the gold medal in Women's Singles tennis at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Puerto Rico's Monica Puig was the reigning gold medalist in 2016, but she withdrew in order to recover from shoulder surgery.

[4] The Czech Republic's Petra Kvitová was the defending bronze medalist and attended her third consecutive Olympic Games, but was defeated in the second round by Belgium's Alison Van Uytvanck.

[5] This was the first Olympic tournament since 1996 not to feature the Williams sisters in the draw after Serena withdrew for family commitments and Venus's ranking had not been high enough to qualify for the team.

Among the top players to withdraw prior to the Games were Sofia Kenin, Serena Williams, Bianca Andreescu, Simona Halep, Victoria Azarenka,[8] and Coco Gauff.

An additional restriction is that players had to have been part of a nominated team for three Billie Jean King Cup events between 2017 and 2020 (with some exceptions).

[11] In an unusual career accomplishment qualification process, one spot is reserved for a former Olympic or Grand Slam champion who has not qualified through the current world rankings.

[11] For the 2020 tournament, the 'career wild card' quota was taken by 2011 US Open singles champion Samantha Stosur (Venus Williams was not eligible due to the United States already having four players and defending champion Monica Puig was expecting to be in the entry list but withdrew due to injury).