Coco Gauff v Iga Swiatek battle for No 2 spot in WTA Rankings. Can Swiatek overtake Gauff ahead of US Open?

Coco Gauff’s quarter-final exit from the Cincinnati Open has opened the door for Iga Swiatek to reclaim the No 2 spot in the WTA Rankings, but it won’t be easy.

Reigning French Open champion Gauff as been No 2 in the rankings since May when she overtook Swiatek following the Pole’s failure to defend her Italian Open crown.

The American solidified her position when she won the title at Roland Garros while Swiatek dropped to No 8 after she lost in the semi-final of the clay-court Grand Slam before returning to No 3 after winning Wimbledon.

With both losing in the round of 16 at the Canadian Open, the battle for second place in the rankings heated up at the Cincinnati Open and there was an additional reward on the line as the player who sits at No 2 after the tournament will also be the second seed at the upcoming US Open.

Gauff was and still is the favourite to be No 2 behind Aryna Sabalenka ahead of the final Grand Slam of the season.

Sabalenka started the WTA 1000 event in Ohio well clear of her rivals as she was on 12,010 points while Gauff was second with 7,669 and Swiatek was another 736 points adrift in third place.

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Gauff’s campaign was ended by Jasmine Paolini in the quarter-final as she went down in three sets, earning 205 points to move to 7,874 in the rankings. Swiatek, meanwhile, has reached the semi-final after she defeated Anna Kalinskaya in straight sets and she has moved to 7,323 points in the Live Rankings.

Can Swiatek Overtake Gauff?

The short answer is “yes”, but it will be difficult as she will need to win the title to move ahead of the American.

Swiatek will first have to get past Elena Rybakina in the semi-final and that will be no easy task as the six-time Grand Slam winner has struggled against the big-hitting Kazakh player in the past.

However, the Pole leads the H2H 5-4, having won their last three encounters with two of those wins coming on hard courts in 2025.

The 24-year-old, though, is yet to reach the final in Cincinnati with her two best displays back-to-back semi-final exits in 2023 and 2024.

Should she get past the ninth seed she will move to 7,583 points and she will then face either seventh seed Paolini or the unseeded Veronika Kudermetova in the final.

A title run will push her to 7,933 points with Gauff dropping to third place with her 7,874 tally.