WTA Rankings: Aryna Sabalenka ties Naomi Osaka as Madison Keys unlocks career high, Belinda Bencic +92
Aryna Sabalenka has drawn level with Naomi Osaka for most weeks at No 1 in the WTA Rankings while Madison Keys made a breakthrough despite not playing and Belinda Bencic produced an astonishing surge into the top 100.
Three-time Grand Slam winner Sabalenka and most of the other big names on the WTA Tour didn’t feature last week, but the Belarusian was always assured of staying at the top and she has now spent 25 weeks at No 1 – the same number as Osaka.
The pair are joint-17th on the all-time list and Sabalenka – who has been No 1 for 17 consecutive weeks after returning to the top last October – will next week move up to joint-16th with Dinara Safina on 26 weeks as she will remain top after the Qatar Open.
Sabalenka sits top with 8,956 points, a mere 186 points ahead of Iga Swiatek, but she doesn’t have any points to defend in Doha as she missed the WTA 1000 event last year while the Pole is the defending champion.
The top two are followed by Gauff, who is more than 2,000 points behind Swiatek, with Jasmine Paolini and Jessica Pegula completing the top five.
There is a new name at No 6 as Australian Open champion Madison Keys has secured another ranking milestone despite not being active last week. The American rose one spot courtesy Elena Rybakina’s two-place drop after she failed to defend her Abu Dhabi Open title.
WTA News
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The rest of the top 10 is unchanged while there are minor changes in the top 20 with Danielle Collins and Daria Kasatkina swapping places while Yulia Putinseva moves up one place to No 20.
But the biggest winner of the week was no doubt Bencic as the Swiss surged 92 places to No 65 after winning the trophy in the United Arab Emirates.
Bencic – a former world No 4 – dropped to outside the top 1000 in the rankings last year after missing the 2024 WTA season due to maternity leave.
She gave birth to her daughter Bella in April last year and returned to action in late 2024, playing ITF and WTA 125 tournaments to regain her fitness.
Bencic stepped up to the WTA Tour this year, starting at No 487, and reached the round of 16 in Adelaide and fourth round of the Australian Open before going all the way in Abu Dhabi to win her ninth career title.
Ashlyn Krueger finished runner-up to Bencic and she is up 11 places to No 40 – a career best – while semi-finalist Linda Noskova climbed six spots to No 33.
Anastasia Potapova was the other title winner as she lifted the Transylvania Open trophy, but she is up only one place to No 31 while beaten finalist Lucia Bronzetti jumped 20 places to No 56.
Other big climbers were Veronika Kudermetova (+23 to No 52), An Li (+23 to No 61), Suzan Lamens (+11 to No 66), Tatjana Maria (+16 to No 74), Kimberly Birrell (+26 to No 75) and Jil Teichman (+17 to NO 100).
Former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova finds herself at No 69 after droppping 26 places.
WTA Rankings Top 20
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 8,956 points
2. Iga Swiatek Poland – 8,770
3. Coco Gauff United States – 6,538
4. Jasmine Paolini Italy – 5,288
5. Jessica Pegula United States – 4,861
6. Madison Keys United States – 4,680
7. Elena Rybakina Kazakhstan – 4,588
8. Zheng Qinwen China – 4,095
9. Emma Navarro United States – 3,709
10. Paula Badosa Spain – 3,588
11. Danielle Collins United States – 3,122
11. Daria Kasatkina – 3,056
13. Diana Shnaider – 2,873
14. Barbora Krejcikova Czech Republic – 2,675
15. Mirra Andreeva – 2,665
16. Beatriz Hadid Maia Brazil – 2,369
17. Karolina Muchova Czech Republic – 2,344
18. Anna Kalinskaya – 2,304
19. Donna Vekic Croatia – 2,273
20. Yulia Putinseva Kazakhstan – 2,093
