Seeded 15th at the Wuhan Open, Vinci defeated qualifier Danka Kovinić and Irina-Camelia Begu in the first two rounds. In the third round, she stunned third seed and defending champion, Petra Kvitová, 7–6, 6–2. She then defeated eighth seed Karolína Plíšková, 7–6, 6–3 to advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals, Vinci lost to eventual champion Venus Williams 7–5, 2–6, 6–7. In this match, Vinci had a 6–5 lead in the third set and even had one match point before Venus came back and won the match. Seeded 15th at the China Open, Vinci lost in the third round to qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 1–6, 6–3, 2–6. Seeded third at the Generali Ladies Linz, she was defeated in the first round by qualifier Aleksandra Krunić, 6–1, 6–7, 6–1. Vinci's final tournament of the year was the first edition of the WTA Elite Trophy. Seeded fourth, Vinci beat 11th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in her first rubber, 6–4, 6–4. In her second rubber, she lost to Alternate Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 1–6, 0–6. Having a 1–1 record in Group D, Vinci reached the semifinals losing to top-seed and eventual champion Venus Williams 2–6, 2–6.