WTA Rankings: Aryna Sabalenka up to third on list for most points since 2009 as she emulates Serena Williams
The WTA Tour is officially in the Aryna Sabalenka Era as the world No 1 has become only the third player to reach 11,000 points in the WTA Rankings.
The three-time Grand Slam winner – currently in her second spell at No 1 – has been top since October last year when she moved past Iga Swiatek.
She has now spent 28 consecutive weeks at the top and has taken her overall tally to 36 weeks, but there is more joy on the way as she will remain at No 1 until Wimbledon.
Sabalenka started the Madrid Open on 10,768 points in the official rankings, which put her fourth in the list for most ranking points accumulated since the current system was introduced in 2009 with the great Serena Williams, Swiatek and Victoria Azarenka ahead of her.
But the Belarusian broke through the magical 11,000-point mark after winning her third title in the Spanish capital.
Victory over Coco Gauff in the final helped her to move to 11,118 points as she jumped to third in the list for most ranking points.
The 8 women to reach 10,000 points in WTA Rankings since 2009:
8. Ashleigh Barty – 10,185 (August 23, 2021)
Ashleigh Barty is one of the few tennis players who retired at a career-high No 1 as she called it a day shortly after winning the 2022 Australian Open.
But her highest-points tally came the previous year shortly after she won Wimbledon.
The Australian also won the Miami Open, Cincinnati Open, Stuttgart Open and Yarra Valley Classic that year to help her past the 10,000-point mark.
7. Caroline Wozniacki – 10,255 (May 23, 2011)
Great Dane Caroline Wozniacki was initially an MVP in the “players to be world No 1 without winning a major” list before she broke her duck at the 2018 Australian Open.
Her best points tally came before her major breakthrough in Melbourne as she reached the semi-final at the Australian Open in 2011 and also still had points from her runners-up finish at the 2010 WTA Finals and semi-final of the US Open.
But she also had silverware to show for her efforts as he won the Dubai Championships, Indian Wells Open, Charleston Open and Brussels Open earlier in the year.
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6. Dinara Safina – 10,521 (July 6, 2009)
Dinara Safina is the only player on this list to achieve this incredible milestone without actually winning a Grand Slam.
The Russian accumulated her points from finishing runner-up at the Australian Open and French Open and reaching the semi-final at Wimbledon. Away from the Grand Slams, she won the Madrid Open and the Italian Open.
5. Maria Sharapova – 10,690 (May 13, 2013)
Incredibly, Sharapova was ranked No 2 in the world at the time she hit her personal best points tally ahead of her Italian Open title defence.
Besides the Rome points, the Russian accumulated points from winning the 2013 Indian Wells Open and Stuttgart Open as well as finishing runner-up at the 2012 WTA Finals and the 2013 Miami Open and Madrid Open.
4. Victoria Azarenka – 10,955 (October 8, 2012)
Victoria Azarenka was one of three players to break the 10,000-point milestone in 2013 with Serena Williams and Sharapova the other two, but it’s the Belarusian’s 2012 feat that ranks on the list as she came within 45 points of hitting the 11,000 mark.
The two-time Grand Slam winner won the 2012 Australian Open and finished runner-up at the US Open while she also a lot of points from the previous year’s WTA Finals runners-up spot. She also won the Sydney International, Qatar Open, Indian Wells Open and China Open.
3. Aryna Sabalenka – 11,118 (May 5, 2025)
Sabalenka has replaced Swiatek as the most dominant player on the WTA Tour since moving past the Pole in October 2024.
The Belarusian is set to remain there for several more months as she has opened a 4,000-point lead over Swiatek.
Her 11,118-point tally includes 2,000 points from the 2024 US Open title run, runners-up points from the 2025 Australian Open as well as a title runs from last year’s Cincinnati and Wuhan events and this year’s Miami Open and Madrid Open, plus runners-up finishes at the Indian Wells Open and Stuttgart Open, both in 2025.
2. Iga Swiatek – 11,695 (20 May 2024)
Five-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek started her 2024 Roland Garros title defence with her best-ever points tally of 11,695 – not too far off her previous best of 11,085 that she accumulated at the backend of 2022 and the start of 2023.
The bulk of the former world No 1’s points came from her French Open and WTA Finals titles the previous year while she had also won the WTA 1000 Madrid Open and Italian Open finals.
1. Serena Williams – 13,615 (10 June 2013)
The great Serena Williams is the only player to have broken through the 12,000 and 13,000-points mark with her best ever season coming in 2013.
She dominated the sport that year as she won the French Open, US Open, WTA Finals as well as the Miami Open, Madrid Open, Italian Open, Canadian Open and the China Open to finish the year with 13,260 points.
However, she reached her “peak” in terms of points just after beating Sharapova in the Roland Garros final as she sat on 13,615 points as at that stage she had already won six trophies for the season while she also still had the points from Wimbledon, the US Open and the WTA Finals of the previous year in her “pocket”.
