Elena Rybakina above Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff 8th, Emma Raducanu in top 20 – alternative rankings
Elena Rybakina climbed to third in the WTA Rankings after her victory at the 2026 Australian Open, but she is rated as the second-best player in the women’s game in an alternative rankings list.
The 26-year-old Kazakh has 7,523 points in the WTA Rankings, which puts her 455 points behind second-ranked Iga Swiatek and 3,467 points adrift of world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
What is the UTR Ranking system?
While the WTA Rankings count points earned in the last 52 weeks, Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) is based on an algorithm that places more weight on recent results and wins against higher-ranked players.
The UTR Rating system is open to players at all levels of tennis, and all players — regardless of age, gender, geography, or skill level — are rated on the same scale between 1.00 and 16.50 based on match results.
Only matches within the last 12 months are counted towards the rating, and the algorithm uses the last 30 matches a player competes in (or fewer if they played fewer than 30 in the last 12 months).
Sabalenka lost to Rybakina in the Australian Open final, and the Belarusian tops the women’s UTR rankings with a rating of 13.24.
The four-time major champion started 2026 by winning the Brisbane International, while she was a runner-up at the WTA Finals in November and won the US Open in November.
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Rybakina is narrowly behind Sabalenka with a UTR rating of 13.21. The Kazakh’s Australian Open title run was a continuation of her excellent form at the end of last season, when she won the WTA Finals in November and the Ningbo Open in October.
Swiatek is third on the UTR list with a rating of 12.96, while Jessica Pegula sits fourth — two places higher than her WTA ranking — with a rating of 12.94.
World No 4 Amanda Anisimova is fifth in the UTR rankings with a 12.92 rating, while Elina Svitolina’s 12.89 rating puts her sixth — three positions above her WTA ranking.
Ekaterina Alexandrova is seventh, while Coco Gauff is three places below her WTA position in eighth. Karolina Muchova and Zheng Qinwen complete the UTR top 10.
World No 25 Emma Raducanu has a UTR rating of 12.57, which puts her 19th.
UTR Ratings Women’s Top 20
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 13.24 (WTA Ranking – 1)
2. Elena Rybakina – 13.21 (WTA Ranking – 3)
3. Iga Swiatek – 12.96 (WTA Ranking – 2)
4. Jessica Pegula – 12.94 (WTA Ranking – 6)
5. Amanda Anisimova – 12.92 (WTA Ranking – 4)
6. Elina Svitolina – 12.89 (WTA Ranking – 9)
7. Ekaterina Alexandrova – 12.77 (WTA Ranking – 10)
8. Coco Gauff – 12.75 (WTA Ranking – 5)
9. Karolina Muchova – 12.73 (WTA Ranking – 19)
10. Zheng Qinwen – 12.70 (WTA Ranking – 26)
11. Jasmine Paolini – 12.69 (WTA Ranking – 8)
12. Mirra Andreeva – 12.68 (WTA Ranking – 7)
13. Marketa Voundrousova – 12.67 (WTA Ranking – 35)
14. Victoria Mboko – 12.66 (WTA Ranking – 13)
15. Sorana Cirstea – 12.62 (WTA Ranking – 31)
16. Anna Kalinskaya – 12.60 (WTA Ranking – 28)
17. Marta Kostyuk – 12.60 (WTA Ranking – 23)
18. Naomi Osaka – 12.59 (WTA Ranking – 15)
19. Emma Raducanu – 12.57 (WTA Ranking – 25)
20. Madison Keys – 12.57 (WTA Ranking – 16)
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