Coco Gauff will become world number two after this year's Roland Garros after Aryna Sabalenka shockingly lost in the quarter-finals.
Before the 2024 French Open, the Belarusian was ranked second, while Gauff was third; however, after the season's second major, they'll switch positions, with the American becoming the new world number two, her career high, and Sabalenka dropping to number three.
It's directly due to Sabalenka's shocking loss to Mirra Andreeva. The Belarusian made the semi-final last year, while this year's exit came in the quarter-final. That means that she will lose points because of that, and with Gauff's own run to the semi-final, the American has enough to overtake Sabalenka.
If the 20-year-old loses to Iga Swiatek in the semi-final, she'll emerge on Monday with 7,988 points, which is more than Sabalenka will have. The Belarussian will have 7,788 points after losing 350 points due to the loss to Andreeva.
On the other hand, by making it to the semi-final, the young American earned the same amount of points, which pushed her point total to the aforementioned 7,988 points.
If she would overcome the world no. 1 in the semi-final, her point total would increase to 8,508, and a title from the French capital would give the 2023 US Open champion a points total of 9,208.
It's a well-deserved new career high for Gauff, who has been a superbly consistent tennis player for much of her career. It's only recently that she really started to pile up these deep runs at events, but ever since she broke out, the American rarely loses early in the event.
Sabalenka has been playing consistently as well, but she set a high standard for herself, and this event simply didn't go her way. She struggled physically, which was unfortunate, but she was world number one at one point, and this marks her lowest since her last year's Australian Open triumph.
Both are far behind Swiatek, who has over 10,475 points secured prior to that semi-final match, though Gauff could certainly make things interesting in the rankings, especially as the winner of that match will play in the final against a lower-ranked opponent.
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