WTA Rankings No 1 battle: Aryna Sabalenka v Coco Gauff v Iga Swiatek
Aryna Sabalenka has a dominant lead at the top of the WTA Rankings, but her position could be under threat from Iga Swiatek come the end of the 2025 WTA Tour season.
The three-time Grand Slam winner has spent 38 weeks in a row at No 1 as she replaced Swiatek at the top last October, and she has gone from strength to strength as she became only the second woman to reach 12,000 ranking points after the great Serena Williams.
23-time Grand Slam winner Williams hit that milestone in June 2013 and Swiatek was the second woman to get to 11,000 points in May 2024, before Sabalenka went past the Pole after Wimbledon.
The Belarusian is currently on 12,420 points and she has a 4,751-point advantage over second-placed Coco Gauff with Swiatek another 856 points adrift in third place following her Wimbledon title.
Top 5 In WTA Rankings
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 12,420
2. Coco Gauff – 7,669
3. Iga Swiatek – 6,813
4. Jessica Pegula – 6,423
5. Mirra Andreeva – 5,163
With such a big lead, Sabalenka is set to remain at No 1 for at least a couple more months, but things will get intereting after the North American hard-court swing in terms of the battle between the top three.
Sabalenka Points To Defend
The world No 1 enjoyed a brilliant second half of the season in 2024 as she won the Cincinnati Open, US Open and Wuhan Open.
Sabalenka will defend 5,025 points from now until the end of the year with the bulk of that coming from her New York title (2,000) and Cincy and Wuhan trophies (1,000 each).
The Belarusian also reached the semi-final of the Citi DC Open, quarter-final of the Canadian Open, quarter-final of the China Open and the semi-final of the WTA Finals.
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Gauff Points To Defend
Reigning French Open champion Gauff will drop 3,060 points before the end of the year as she won the China Open and WTA Finals (2,300 combined), and reached the semi-final in Wuhan but struggled outside of that as she lost early at the US Open and the two North American WTA 1000 events.
Swiatek Points To Defend
The newest Wimbledon champion is in a good position ahead of the final few months of the 2025 season after a disappointing end to the previous year.
Swiatek will only drop 830 points from her US Open quarter-final run and the WTA Finals. Although she reached the semi-final of the Cincinnati Open, she lost those points following her failed drug test after the tournament. The Pole also didn’t play in Beijing and Wuhan due to that positive test.
Final Stint Tally
Once the points are dropped, Sabalenka sits on 7,395 with Swiatek on 5,983 and Gauff on 4,609.
So the Belarusian still has a comfortable 1,412-point cushion and she is currently the favourite to finish as the year-end No 1 as she only needs a couple of big titles in the coming months to put her out of reach.
