How Elena Rybakina’s shock loss to Alex Eala affects WTA Rankings No 1 battle with Aryna Sabalenka
Elena Rybakina has once again failed to put pressure on Aryna Sabalenka in the battle for the No 1 spot in the WTA Rankings.
Having closed the gap to the four-time Grand Slam winner ahead of Roland Garros, Rybakina had an opportunity to surpass Sabalenka after the clay-court major.
But her hopes of becoming world No 1 for the first time after the French Open were ended in the second round as she suffered a shock three-set defeat to world No 55 Yuliia Starodubtseva.
She had another chance to close the points lead to the Belarusian at last week’s Queen’s Club Championship, but was upset by world No 73 Katie Boulter in the quarter-final.
And yet another opportunity has come and gone as she was beaten in her opening match of the Berlin Open by world No 35 Alex Eala.
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Rybakina started the WTA 500 event in Germany 947 points adrift of Sabalenka and the gap has reduced to 860 in the Live Rankings as the latter dropped 195 points after reaching the semi-final last year, while the Kazakh only had 108 points to defend.
Had Rybakina outperformed the Belarusian in Berlin, the gap would’ve narrowed further, but Sabalenka – who has been top of the rankings since October 2024 – now has a chance to increase her lead by reaching the final or winning the title.
WTA Live Rankings
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 9,003
2. Elena Rybakina – 8,143
3. Iga Swiatek – 6,733
4. Jessica Pegula – 6,163
5. Mirra Andreeva – 5,751
Sabalenka will face wildcard Nikola Bartunkova in the quarter-final, and if she beats the Czech youngster, then the gap will be back to 947 points.
A runners-up finish in Berlin will see her move to 9,220 to increase the lead to 1,077 while a title run will put her on 9,395 with the lead sitting at 1,252 points.
But all is not lost for Rybakina as she will be back in action at the WTA 500 Bad Homburg Open next week and she doesn’t have any points to defend so that gap can be reduced significantly if she reaches the final or wins the tournament.
There will be another big opportunity at Wimbledon as Sabalenka will drop 780 points after reaching last year’s semi-final while Rybakina lost in the round of 32 so the reigning Australian Open will lose only 130 points.
The world No 2’s recent form, though, will be a concern ahead of the grass-court major as she hasn’t beaten a top-20 player since reaching the quarter-final of the Italian Open in May when she defeated No 10 Karolina Pliskova in the round of 16 before losing to Elina Svitolina.
