Iga Swiatek Stays In Pole Position, Sabalenka Stays Second In Latest WTA Rankings
Poland's Iga Swiatek continues to hoard on the world number ranking as she stays in the clear of closest challengers Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina in the latest WTA rankings.
Swiatek and Sabalenka have not played since Wimbledon where they exited the tournament in the quarterfinal and semifinal stages respectively. In Sabalenka's case, she missed out on the chance to dethrone the Pole following her three-set defeat to Ons Jabeur at the All England Club.
Swiatek, however, will strengthen her grip over the Belarusian at this week's Poland Open in her home country. She is on 9,315 points, maintaining a slender 470-point lead over Sabalenka who will not play in any tournaments before the WTA 1000 in Canada.
The rest of the WTA's Top 20 remains unchanged with Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova retaining her top-10 status following Daria Kasatkina's shock exit in Palermo. Elsewhere, Mayar Sherif's run to the semifinals at the same tournament takes her on the cusp of a top-30 breakthrough.
Sherif is now the highest-ranked Egyptian player, male or female, in history. She surpasses the trailblazer Ismail El Shafei who was ranked a career-high number 34 in the men's rankings in 1975. The 27-year-old WTA star will most likely make her Top 30 debut next week after the conclusion of the WTA 250 in Hamburg.
There is a Top 100 debutant in the latest WTA rankings. American Kayla Day won the ITF W100 in Granby on Sunday, beating home favorite Katherine Sebov in a three-hour dogfight. Day rises to a career-high 94th in the rankings, marking her top 100 breakthrough.
There was a moment of history in Budapest at the weekend. 19-year-old lucky loser Maria Timofeeva of Russia won her first WTA title, defeating Ukraine's Kateryna Baindl in the final 6-3, 3-6, 6-0. She had never played a main draw match on Tour before last week, let alone win a title, but becomes the first main draw debutant to win a title since 2001.
Timofeeva's groundbreaking run in Hungary's capital sees her make the biggest move in the Top 200, rising from world no. 246 to a career-high 127.
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