WTA Rankings: Rybakina chips away at Sabalenka lead, Gauff, Swiatek miss out, Ostapenko -18, Podrez +62
Aryna Sabalenka remains well clear at the top of the WTA Rankings, but Elena Rybakina has done her hopes of eventually replacing the Belarusian at No 1 in the coming weeks no harm.
Rybakina won her second title of the year following her success at the Australian Open as she defeated Karolina Muchova in the final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
The 500 ranking points she earned helped her to slightly reduce Sabalenka’s lead at the top after the four-time Grand Slam winner opted not to compete in Stuttgart.
World No 1 Sabalenka started her 79th consecutive week at No 1 on Monday as she has topped the rankings since October 2024 for an overall total of 90.
Despite her decision not to defend her 395 points from her runners-up finish from the Stuttgart Open 12 months ago, she maintained a healthy 2,395-point lead over Rybakina.
But Rybakina will get another chance to reduce the lead at the Madrid Open as Sabalenka has 1,000 points to defend, but the Kazakh star is more concerned about her matches.
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“I’m not really focusing on the points. I know my team is checking sometimes, but that’s not the goal,” she said. “The most important for us, to be consistent and do well, because you can’t control how other players are gonna play. You just need to do your job as best as possible.
“I think for now everything was working well, and we just try to continue now for the big tournaments ahead, and hopefully I can get all the positives from this week to the next tournaments.
Behind the top two, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek had the chance to edge closer to Rybakina, but they both missed out as they lost in the quarter-final. Swiatek, in fact, had the chance to move ahead of Gauff if she outperformed the American, but was beaten in the last eight by Andreeva.
Teenager Andreeva’s run to the semi-final helped her to move up one place while Stuttgart runner-up Muchova is on the verge of a return to the top 10 after she climbed to No 11.
Marta Kostyuk was the other title winner over the weekend as she won the all-Ukraine Open de Rouen final, beating 19-year-old Veronika Podrez in straight sets.
Former world No 16 Kostyuk earned a five-place jump to No 23 with her trophy run while first-time finalist Podrez is +62 to a new career high of No 147.
As for some of the other big winners inside the top-100, they are Tatjana Maria +9 to No 54, Zeynep Sonmez +12 to No 67, Alycia Parks +11 to No 84.
Meanwhile, 2025 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix champion Jelena Ostapenko’s title defence was ended in the first round by Andreeva and, as a result, she has dropped 18 places to No 40.
WTA Top 20
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 10,895
2. Elena Rybakina Kazakhstan – 8,500
3. Coco Gauff United States – 7,279
4. Iga Swiatek Poland – 7,263
5. Jessica Pegula United States – 6,163
6. Amanda Anisimova United States – 5,995
7. Elina Svitolina Ukraine – 3,910
8. Mirra Andreeva – 3,746 (+1)
9. Jasmine Paolini Italy – 3,722 (-1)
10. Victoria Mboko Canada – 3,531
11. Karolina Muchova Czechia – 3,318 (+1)
12. Belinda Bencic Switzerland – 3,090 (-1)
13. Linda Noskova Czechia – 2,849 (+1)
14. Ekaterina Alexandrova – 2,789 (-1)
15. Naomi Osaka Japan – 2,324
16. Iva Jovic United States – 2,270
17. Madison Keys United States – 2,161
18. Clara Tauson Denmark – 2,040
19. Diana Shnaider – 2,001
20. Liudmila Samsonova – 1,895 (+1)
