2018 Brisbane International – Women's singles

Karolína Plíšková was the defending champion, but lost in the semifinals to Elina Svitolina.

Svitolina went on to win the title, defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the final, 6–2, 6–1.

Garbiñe Muguruza was in contention for the WTA No. 1 singles ranking at the start of the tournament, but she retired during her opening second round match. As such, Simona Halep retained the No. 1 ranking. Of note, if was the fourth consecutive edition of the tournament that Muguruza had to retire or withdraw from due to injury.

Seeds
The top two seeds received a bye into the second round. • # 🇪🇸 Garbiñe Muguruza (second round, retired)

• # 🇨🇿 Karolína Plíšková (semifinals)

• # 🇺🇦 Elina Svitolina (champion)

• # 🇫🇷 Caroline Garcia (first round, retired)

• # 🇬🇧 Johanna Konta (quarterfinals, retired)

• # 🇫🇷 Kristina Mladenovic (first round)

• # Anastasija Sevastova (semifinals)

• # 🇦🇺 Ashleigh Barty (first round)

Seeds
• # 🇷🇺 Natalia Vikhlyantseva (second round, withdrew)

• # 🇺🇸 Jennifer Brady (qualified)

• # 🇬🇧 Heather Watson (qualifying competition; lucky loser)

• # 🇧🇾 Aliaksandra Sasnovich (qualified)

• # 🇺🇦 Kateryna Bondarenko (qualified)

• # 🇩🇪 Andrea Petkovic (first round)

• # 🇪🇪 Kaia Kanepi (qualified)

• # 🇺🇸 Kristie Ahn (qualifying competition)

Qualifiers
• # 🇺🇦 Kateryna Bondarenko

• # 🇺🇸 Jennifer Brady

• # 🇪🇪 Kaia Kanepi

• # 🇧🇾 Aliaksandra Sasnovich

Lucky losers
• # 🇬🇧 Heather Watson