WTA Rankings: How Aryna Sabalenka’s Cincinnati exit affects No 1 battle with Elena Rybakina
Aryna Sabalenka’s stranglehold on the No 1 spot in the WTA Rankings is slipping away following her exit from the Cincinnati Open with Elena Rybakina in prime position to overtake the Belarusian.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Sabalenka has dominated the top spot the past two years as she replaced Iga Swiatek in October 2024, spending the past 96 weeks at No 1 to take her overall tally to 104 weeks.
But her form has dropped in recent months as, after completing the Sunshine Double in March by winning the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open, she didn’t have the best of clay-court seasons with her best results a couple of quarter-final exits at the Madrid Open and French Open.
She also had a poor grass-court campaign, losing in the round of 16 at Wimbledon and that was followed up by another fourth-round exit at last week’s Canadian Open.
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Rybakina, meanwhile, kept chipping away at Sabalenka’s lead and she started the Cincinnati event only 354 points adrift at No 2, although the gap increased to 529 as the Kazakh star is defending 390 points this week compared to Sabalenka’s 215.
Sabalenka managed to pick up 120 points with her run to the round of 16, but her journey was ended by Sara Bejlek as the 20-year-old Czech beat her 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 while Rybakina has reached the quarter-final after beating Diana Shnaider 6-4, 6-4.
“I feel incredible,” Bejlek said after the win. “I lost totally my words. I just keep believing and that was the key today. She played amazing tennis and I was just believing, keep fighting and I was just trying my best and that’s it.”
What Rybakina Has To Do
The reigning Australian Open champion needs to reach the final at the WTA 1000 event in Mason to overtake Sabalenka when the rankings are updated again next week.
Sabalenka sits on 8,575 points in the Live Rankings following her exit in Cincinnati while Rybakina has 8,141 points after her victory over Shnaider.
But reaching the final will not be easy as she faces the in-form Iga Swiatek – who won the Canadian Open last week – in the quarter-final.
Rybakina was beaten in straight sets by Swiatek in Toronto, but if she gets past the Pole then she will take on either Jessica Pegula or Amanda Anisimova for a place in the final.
But Rybakina has been here before as she had opportunities to overtake Sabalenka at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, but fluffed her chances.
However, there is bad news for Sabalenka as she is the defending US Open champion so will drop 2,000 points at Flushing Meadows while Rybakina will only defend 240 points following a fourth-round exit in 2025.
