Jana Novotná won the singles tennis title at the 1996 Advanta Championships of Philadelphia after the defending champion Steffi Graf retired in the final, with the scoreline at 6 - 4.
A champion seed is indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which that seed was eliminated. The top four seeds received a bye to the second round.
Conchita Martínez (second round)
Jana Novotná (champion)
Lindsay Davenport (first round) Mary Joe Fernández (first round)
Barbara Paulus (quarterfinals)