Sabalenka To Retain World No. 1 Ranking After Australian Open Thanks To Swiatek's Loss
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Aryna Sabalenka is guaranteed to keep her spot as the WTA world No. 1 after Iga Swiatek's dramatic exit from the season's opening Grand Slam.
Sabalenka ended 2024 as the year-end world No. 1 after battling Swiatek for a second consecutive year. The Pole ended 2023 at the top, sealing that position by winning the WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico.
Swiatek also secured that spot in 2022 and had a great chance of achieving it for a third consecutive year when Sabalenka was at No. 3 in the rankings after Wimbledon, behind her and Coco Gauff.
The Belarusian responded decisively by winning the Cincinnati Open, US Open, and Wuhan Open in the closing months of the season. Her position as the 2024 year-end No. 1 was confirmed after Gauff beat Swiatek in the WTA Finals round-robin stage.
Sabalenka earned that achievement, but Swiatek was hampered by being provisionally suspended during the Asian swing after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine. That nightmare is over after the World Anti-Doping Agency decided not to appeal the case.
Although Sabalenka had a formidable points lead at the top of the rankings before the Australian Open began, Swiatek overtaking her was possible, especially if she won the tournament in Melbourne for the first time.
Those hopes ended in the semifinal after Swiatek could not convert a match point on her serve during a defeat to Madison Keys, who produced a performance of blistering power to defeat the world No. 2.
Despite that disappointment, Swiatek will still have a healthy 650 points added to her total because reaching the semi-final of the event was a significant improvement over losing to Linda Noskova in last year's third round.
However, Sabalenka has already guaranteed that she will stay at No. 1 after reaching the Australian Open final for a third consecutive year. The two-time defending champion defeated her close friend Paula Badosa in the semifinal.
Sabalenka was defending 2,000 points from winning last year's women's singles. She is now guaranteed at least 1,300 points even if Keys were to cause an upset and defeat her in the final.
The three-time Grand Slam champion will lose 700 points if she finishes as the runner-up. That would take her total to 8,956. Swiatek will be on 8,770 when the new rankings come out on Monday.
Although Swiatek can no longer overtake Sabalenka after the Australian Open, whether the Belarusian secures the title in Saturday's title is still crucial for the world No. 1 race since the Pole would be less than 200 points behind if Sabalenka loses.
At the same time, Swiatek moving ahead of her rival in the next few months is a challenging task because she has a massive number of points to defend from winning last year's French Open, Italian Open, Madrid Open, Indian Wells Open, and Qatar Open.
The vast majority of Sabalenka's points from last year were after Wimbledon. Despite those fascinating dynamics, Swiatek recently said she is not thinking about reclaiming the world No. 1 ranking and wants to focus on improving her game.
