WTA Rankings: Aryna Sabalenka rules, Iga Swiatek facing Jessica Pegula challenge, Coco Gauff slips
Aryna Sabalenka remains comfortable at the top of the WTA Rankings while Jessica Pegula was the big winner last week as she returned to No 3 to also reclaim the American No 1 honours.
Reigning world No 1 Sabalenka and her closest challenger Iga Swiatek were not in action last week with Pegula the highest-ranked star to feature on the WTA Tour.
And Pegula made the most of her opportunity as she won the Charleston Open, beating fellow American Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-5 in the final to win her eighth career title.
Besides lifting a shiny new trophy, there were several other rewards for the 31-year-old after her performance at the WTA 500 event as she won her maiden clay-court title and received a boost in the rankings.
The run in Charleston helped her to edge past Coco Gauff as she now leads her compatriot by a mere 38 points while she is 1,369 points behind Swiatek at No 2.
And while a 1,000-plus point advantage is a big gap, Swiatek has a lot of points to defend during the remainder of the clay season as she won titles in Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros last year.
Pegula, by contrast, didn’t play at any of those events last year so won’t be dropping any points in the coming weeks.
At No 1, Sabalenka’s 3,071-point lead over Swiatek is still intact with the Belarusian now in her 33rd week at No 1 in the rankings as she sits in 16th place in the all-time list, just one week behind Angelique Kerber.
She will move ahead of the German in a fortnight while she will also move past Amelie Mauresmo (39 weeks) as she is assured of remaining on top for at least another month.
Madison Keys completes the top five as the American missed a chance to move closer after losing in the third round in Charleston with the rest of the top 10 also unchanged.
Daria Kasatkina dropped two places to No 14 with Karolina Muchova and Diana Shnaider the beneficiaries as they moved up one spot each.
Danielle Collins was the defending champion in Charleston, but she lost in the quarter-final and, as a result, slipped 10 places to No 32 while Kenin is up 10 to No 34.
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Camila Osorio was the other title winner over the weekend as she successfully defended her Copa Colsanitas trophy in Colombia, but there was no real rankings reward as she moved up one place to No 53.
Meanwhile, Maria Sakkari’s slump continues as the Greek has slipped 18 places to No 83 after losing in the second round in the United States.
There is no WTA Tour events this week due to the Billie Jean King Cup qualifying round, but the action will resume next week with the WTA 500 Stuttgart Open and the WTA 250 Open de Rouen with most of big-name players in action.
WTA Rankings Top 20
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 10,541 points
2. Iga Swiatek Poland – 7,470
3. Jessica Pegula United States – 6,101
4. Coco Gauff United States – 6,063
5. Madison Keys United States – 4,999
6. Jasmine Paolini Italy – 4,843
7. Mirra Andreeva – 4,775
8. Zheng Qinwen China – 4,243
9. Paula Badosa Spain – 3,821
10. Elena Rybakina Kazakhstan – 3,808
11. Emma Navarro United States – 3,797
12. Karolina Muchova Czech Republic – 2,919
13. Diana Shnaider – 2,913
14. Daria Kasatkina Australia – 2,741
15. Barbora Krejcikova Czech Republic – 2,675
16. Amanda Anisimova United States – 2,617
17. Beatriz Hadid Maia Brazil – 2,209
18. Elina Svitolina Ukraine – 2,180
19. Luidmila Samsonova – 2,150
20. Donna Vekic Croatia – 2,141
