WTA Rankings predictions by Sky tennis pundits: Who will finish as year-end No 1?
Aryna Sabalenka claimed the year-end No 1 ranking honour the past two years while Iga Swiatek finished at the top in 2022 and 2023 so will either of them take top spot in 2026?
Well, according to the Sky Sports Tennis predictions, Swiatek won’t be the world No 1 at the end of next season while Sabalenka received one vote with three different pundits going for three different players.
Sabalenka was started the year at No 1 and finished at No 1 with second-placed Swiatek 2,475 points her in the final rankings of 2025 and, in the process, the Belarusian became only the seventh woman to spend a full calendar year at the top of the WTA Rankings.
The 27-year-old won the most titles (four), reached the most finals (nine) and topped the prize money list ($15,008,519).
There is no doubt Sabalenka will be the favourite to continue her form in 2026, but only one of the Sky pundits selected her in the prediction for the 2026 year-end No 1 and that was Laura Robson.
Tim Henman went with Elena Rybakina following her incredible end to the 2025 campaign as she won the WTA Finals undefeated, beating Sabalenka in the final, while Jonathan Overend picked French Open champion Coco Gauff.
Rybakina and Gauff are yet to reach No 1 in the rankings as the former has peaked at No 3 while the American went as high as No 2.
Current world No 5 Rybakina was the clear favourite when it came to predictions for the 2026 Australian Open winner as all three pundits went with the Kazakh star.
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She finished runner-up to Sabalenka in the 2023 final at Melbourne Park, but she is yet to make it past the fourth round at the season-opening Grand Slam outside of that result.
The 2022 Wimbledon winner was also backed by Robson to win a second grass-court Grand Slam, but again the votes were split with Overend going with Gauff and Henman picking Sabalenka.
Overend went all in with Gauff as he also believes she will successfully defend her French Open title and win a second US Open crown following her 2023 success.
Swiatek, of course, can never be discounted at Roland Garros and Henman and Robson both went with the Pole to win this year’s clay-court major. The six-time Grand Slam winner has won four titles in Paris and has a 40–3 record at the tournament.
As for the US Open, Henman went with Amanda Anisimova while Robson backed Sabalenka to make it three in a row at Flushing Meadows.
Anisimova was one of the stars of the 2025 season as she was runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open, won two WTA 1000 titles and finished at the year at a career-high No 4 in the rankings.
Year-End No 1
Overend: Gauff
Henman: Rybakina
Robson: Sabalenka
Australian Open
Overend: Rybakina
Henman: Rybakina
Robson: Rybakina
French Open
Overend: Gauff
Henman: Swiatek
Robson: Swiatek
Wimbledon
Overend: Gauff
Henman: Sabalenka
Robson: Rybakina
US Open
Overend: Gauff
Henman: Anisimova
Robson: Sabalenka
