Iga Swiatek’s 11-month reign as the top seed in the WTA rankings has come to an end as US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka has risen to be number one.
After an eight-week run at the top of the rankings between September and November 2023, the Belarusian athlete, who also won the Australian Open in January, is back at the top of the rankings.
What happened to Swiatek?
Moreover, Swiatek from Poland dropped to second place after receiving points penalty for missing the required six WTA 500 events. After opting not to participate in the tour’s Asian swing due to exhaustion, Swiatek, who also hired a new coach earlier this month, has only participated in two of the competitions and has not played since the US Open in September.
Swiatek won five titles in the first half of the season, and had once led the rankings by over 4,000 points. However, in the second half of the year, Sabalenka gradually overtook her, adding victories from Wuhan and Cincinnati.
Swiatek’s next opportunity to reclaim the top spot would be the season-ending WTA finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Towards the end of the year, Aryna Sabalenka hopes to be the world’s top-ranked tennis player. Following the news that world No. 1 Iga Swiatek withdrew due to personal circumstances, the Belarusian is the top seed for this week’s China Open, and it now presents Sabalenka with an opportunity to get closer to her goal.
Trailing Iga Swiatek by 2169 points, Sabalenka is presently ranked second in the WTA rankings. She had been first in line between September and October of the previous year, when the Pole passed her. With the season coming to an end, Sabalenka said that one of her primary goals is to regain that top position.
The athlete said: “Of course, that’s one of my goals, to finish the season at world number one… I’m not trying to focus on that, I’m trying to focus on my game. There are only three tournaments left.”
She added: “I’m just trying to bring my best tennis on court. After the season, I’ll see if it was enough to finish the year at number one or have to improve something else to get to number one.”
Amazing year for Sabalenka
After winning a Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open to start the 2024 season, Sabalenka has already had an incredible year.
Things took a turn for the worse in the spring and early summer after she was injured and missed Wimbledon. She was shocked to lose to Mirra Andreeva in the Roland Garros quarter-final. Nonetheless, Sabalenka won the Cincinnati Open and went on to win the US Open, where she defeated Jessica Pegula in the championship match.
“To be called the best player in the world, that means everything…It’s good to know that you’ve been doing the right thing, all of those hours of training wasn’t a waste of time,” Sabalenka declared.
As the top seed in Beijing, Sabalenka advances to the second round with a bye and will play against one of two qualifiers, Mananchaya Sawangkaew or Zarina Diyas.
For the first time this season, Aryna Sabalenka defeated world No. 1 Iga Swiatek to advance to the Cincinnati Open final.
The two had previously faced off in the 2024 Madrid Open and Italian Open finals, with Sabalenka losing both times. Sabalenka, who will move up to the second rank in the world, finally defeated her opponent in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 after failing to convert nine match points.
After winning the match, Sabalenka said: “It sounds like I broke the wall finally… I’m super happy. After such a tough battle against Iga, I’m super happy with the win.”
She will now play against Jessica Pegula in the finals. The American beat Spain’s Paula Badosa 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the other semi-final. Moreover, Pegula has won her past nine matches. A win over Sabalenka would guarantee a double at the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open.
The 22-year-old will reclaim her No. 1 spot in the WTA rankings after she won the WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico, edging past Aryna Sabalenka.
Swiatek’s WTA finals journey
Swiatek had an intriguing start to her WTA finals journey when she alone donned a red dress at the draw ceremony and pre-tournament photo shoot, while the rest of the seven girls were all dressed in white. This caused Swiatek to stand out from the crowd, garnering the attention of many spectators, who complimented her on her stunning attire.
When interviewed by the Tennis Channel, Swiatek asserted that the incident was the result of a miscommunication. The Polish player shared that she had selected the dress, which had been designed by Magda Butrym, a few months prior to the ceremony, but then received an email from the WTA informing her that the dress code was to be white.
“Honestly there was no story!” she laughed. “I picked that dress a couple of months before, and then the WTA emailed us that we should all wear white. And we were like, really? We’re not getting married or something?
Iga Swiatek on why she was the only one wearing red at the WTA Finals Gala:
“Honestly there was no story. I picked the dress a couple months before. Then WTA emailed us that we should all wear white. We were like ‘really?’ We’re not getting married or something 😂. We asked them… pic.twitter.com/hF5ehbYQEU
“So we asked them if it’s possible to maybe not have that rule. And they literally sent an email a few hours later saying that it’s okay, you can wear whatever you want,” Swiatek said.
And for the rest of the week, Swiatek stood out as she didn’t lose one single game in the round-robin format of the tournament, prevailed against Bulgarian player Aryna Sabalenka, and reached the WTA Finals final, where she finally defeated American player Jessica Pegula in a dominant fashion.
Swiatek prevailed via a straight-set victory of 6-1, 6-0 to become the youngest champion since Petra Kvitova (21) in 2011, according to Olympics.com. This victory marked her first time winning at the WTA finals, her sixth title of the year, her sixty-eighth win of the year, and her seventeenth career singles title on the Hologic WTA tour.
As a result, Swiatek will now be reclaiming her throne from Sabalenka to finish as the year-end No. 1 for the second straight season.
When asked about her most recent success, Swiatek described it as “a dream come true.”
“Coming back to world number one, it’s a dream come true, for sure,” Swiatek said per the WTA official website. “I would say I wasn’t expecting that right now, this season. I was hoping that maybe next year is gonna be my year, but it seems like you know, just working hard and focusing on the right things at the end worked. So I’m really happy.”
YEAR-END #1 IN 2022, YEAR-END #1 IN 2023! 🔥
With her triumph at the WTA Finals in Cancun, 🇵🇱 @iga_swiatek will now finish as year-end #1 on the WTA rankings for the SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR. ✌️
She's the youngest woman to achieve the feat since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010-2011:
Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka won the opening match of the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia, defeating Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 6-4. The Belarusian athlete is having an amazing 2024 season, having won 21 of her last 22 games.
Both athletes, who are in the tournament’s Purple Group, have recently shown exceptional form. Sabalenka has won the Cincinnati Open, the US Open, and has a victory in Wuhan against the same opponent. Zheng is a gold medallist from the Paris Olympics. She has also won at the Tokyo Open.
Highlights of the match
While the first set was tied at 3-2, Sabalenka took advantage of a double fault by Zheng to break her opponent.
Sabalenka broke her opponent for the second time in the match after holding her service to end the first set with a score of 6-3. The second set then ended with a score of 4-4.
Following her victory, Sabalenka must now win her next two group matches to ensure that she keeps her top ranking. If she fails to do so, who will win the top spot will depend on the performance of Iga Swiatek. Swiatek needs to win the title to have a chance of reclaiming the top slot.
Sabalenka said: “I’m super happy with the win, especially against Qinwen. It’s always tough matches, tough battles against her, and I’m really, I’m really glad I was able to finish this match in straight sets.”
The athlete will now battle against Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina for her next matches.
Aryna Sabalenka defeated Jessica Pegula in the Cincinnati Open final to win her first championship since the Australian Open in January.
It took the athlete 76 minutes to complete a 6-3, 7-5 victory, her 15th career title overall and her sixth at the WTA 1,000 level. Unfortunately, the outcome ended Pegula’s nine-match winning streak.
With her victory, Sabalenka admitted: “This trophy means a lot, it is a really big achievement, especially coming after injury, with this fear of getting injured again.”
She added: “My team did everything they could to make sure I felt as good as I can and I am proud of myself that I was able to handle all of those emotions.”
Highlight of the match
After winning her fourth game, Sabalenka—who will now be ranked second in the world—simply dominated the opening set.
When serving for the title at 5-4 in the second set, she made a small mistake and sixth seed Pegula broke back to tie the match. However, the two-time Grand Slam champion bounced back and won the match.
The 26-year-old, who won the semifinal match over Iga Swiatek, the top-ranked player in the world, will play again at the US Open, which begins on August 26.
