Elena Rybakina missed a golden opportunity to overtake Aryna Sabalenka at No 1 during the French Open, but all is not lost as she will have another chance in the next few weeks.
Sabalenka has been top of the WTA Rankings since October 2024 when she overtook Iga Swiatek, but Rybakina’s Australian Open title helped her to chip away at the Belarusian’s points lead in recent months.
And the two-time Grand Slam was within reach at the start of Roland Garros as a deep run in Paris coupled with an early exit by the top seed would have seen her become No 1 for the first time.
Sabalenka – who was defending 1,300 points having finished runner-up to Coco Gauff last year – ended up losing in the quarter-final, but by then Rybakina’s chances were already over as she lost in the second round.
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But the lead at the top was still reduced to 947 points, giving the Kazakh star another opportunity during the grass-court season.
Top 5 In WTA Rankings After French Open
1. Aryna Sabaleka – 9,090
2. Elena Rybakina – 8,143
3. Iga Swiatek – 6,733
4. Jessica Pegula – 6,056
5. Amanda Anisimova – 5,848
Sabalenka has more points to defend in the next five weeks as the world No 1 reached the semi-final at the WTA 500 Berlin Open last year so she will drop 195 points while she reached the semi-final at Wimbledon, so that’s another 780 points that will come off her tally.
That effectively puts her on 8,115 points, but of course she can increase her total by 500 points ahead of Wimbledon if she wins next week’s Berlin Open.
Rybakina, meanwhile, is dropping 108 points at the Queen’s Club Championship this week while she will only drop 130 points at the All England Club after losing in the third round 12 months ago, giving her a total of 7,905 points at the start of Wimbledon.
The Kazakh can move closer to the No 1 spot with a title run at the WTA 500 Queen’s Club Championship this week while she has also entered the Berlin Open, where another maximum of 500 points will be up for grabs.
But even if she comes up short in her two grass-court warm-up events, top spot will be a shootout between Rybakina and Sabalenka at Wimbledon.
Six-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek is out of the equation for the No 1 ranking as she will drop 2,000 points at Wimbledon as the defending champion.
Jessica Pegula has an outside chance, but she will likely have to win both the Berlin Open and Wimbledon.
