WTA Rankings: Respite for Aryna Sabalenka, Alex Eala +1, teen Lilli Tagger +29, Emma Raducanu -12
Aryna Sabalenka’s lead at the top of the WTA Rankings has increased slightly, title winners Tamara Korpatsch and Lilli Tagger have earned massive jumps while Emma Raducanu has slipped down the list.
There are no changes to the top 20 of the rankings as none of the players was in action last week as they prepared to switch from grass to hard courts, but some of them have dropped points due to a slight shift in the WTA Tour schedule.
The WTA Washington DC Open took place from 21-27 July last year – a week earlier than in 2026 – and the points that players earned at the event in 2025 were removed last week. It will again be out of sync this coming week as the Canadian Open started on 28 July a year ago, but will only get underway on 3 August this time around.
World No 2 Elena Rybakina is one of the players who competed in Washington DC last year and she dropped 87 points, resulting in Sabalenka’s lead to grow to 494 points.
Sabalenka started her 101st week at No 1 in the WTA Rankings on Monday and the four-time Grand Slam winner is set to remain top for at least another couple of weeks with Rybakina’s next chance to overtake her coming in Montreal.
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Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova is the other top-10 player to drop points as she is -103, but her position is also unaffected as she remains at No 6.
In fact, you have to move outside the top 20 for the first changes in the rankings as Maja Chwalinska (21), Madison Keys (22) and Elise Mertens (23) are all up one place each after Marie Bouzkova dropped three spots.
Filipina star Alex Eala is back to her career best of No 28 as she also moved up one place with a few players around her dropping with Leylah Fernandez – who won the WTA 500 Washington Open DC event last year – being one of them, as she is down nine places to No 34.
There are some big climbers outside the top 30 as Daria Snigur is +11 to a new high of No 43 after finishing runner-up to Tagger at the Prague Open.
The 18-year-old Tagger won her maiden title with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 win over the Ukrainian and she earned a 29-place surge to No 45.
Tamara Korpatsch was the other title winner last week as the German delighted home fans by beating Anna Bondar 6-3, 6-3 in the Hamburg Open final to claim her second career title and a 35-place jump to No 46 in the rankings – 25 places above her previous career high.
Bondar is +20 to No 77.
On the other side of the coin is Emma Raducanu as the British player is down 12 places to No 49 as she reached the semi-final in Washington DC last year. And she is set for more disappointment in the coming weeks as she won’t play at the Canadian Open or the Cincinnati Open.
Magda Linette i -14 to No 65, Caty McNally -20 to No 73 and Taylor Townsend -22 to No 105.
WTA Top 20
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 8,550
2. Elena Rybakina Kazakhstan – 8,056
3. Jessica Pegula United States – 6,300
4. Coco Gauff United States – 5,649
5. Mirra Andreeva – 5,293
6. Karolina Muchova Czechia – 5,618
7. Linda Noskova Czechia – 5,016
8. Iga Swiatek Poland – 4,539
9. Amanda Anisimova United States – 4,353
10. Elina Svitolina Ukraine – 4,351
11. Marta Kostyuk Ukraine – 3,925
12. Victoria Mboko Canada – 3,520
13. Naomi Osaka Japan – 3,086
14. Belinda Bencic Switzerland – 2,845
15. Jasmine Paolini Italy – 2,783
16. Iva Jovic United States – 2,636
17. Sorana Cirstea Romania – 2,502
18. Diana Shnaider – 2,458
19. Ekaterina Alexandrova – 2,301
20. Anna Kalinskaya – 2,007
