Aryna Sabalenka will become the new World No. 1 player on the WTA Tour ahead of the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh.
The 2024 WTA season always promised to have a great conclusion, especially after both Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek dominated on their preferred surfaces.
While the Polish player won the Madrid Open, the Italian Open in Rome, and the French Open back-to-back-to-back, the Belarusian player won the Australian Open, the Cincinnati Open, and the US Open.
It's clear which player prefers which surface, and with the last part of the season being played on the hard courts, Sabalenka certainly had a small advantage, especially since she wasn't so far behind the Pole in the 2024 WTA Race.
In addition, she was helped quite a bit by Swiatek. The Polish player withdrew from the Korea Open in Seoul, and shortly after, Swiatek also withdrew from the China Open.
The reigning World No. 1 player then split from her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski. Since the following tournament was set to be played during her search for a new coach, Swiatek also withdrew from the Wuhan Open.
Since those were back-to-back WTA 1000 events, and Swiatek was even the defending champion in Beijing, she lost plenty of points. She also lost a chance to add some to her name while Sabalenka patiently waited for her chance, and it came.
She reached only the quarter-finals in Beijing, but after Swiatek's withdrawal from the Wuhan Open, all Sabalenka needed to do in Wuhan was reach the WTA 1000 tournament quarter-finals.
She did that by beating Yulia Putintseva in three sets, but it was far from an easy victory, as the current World No. 2 player explained after the match.
"Yeah, that was a really difficult battle. Yulia always put it into a great fight. Yeah, had to work really hard to get this win. In the first set, seems like whatever she would do would play well for her."
Yeah, I struggled with strings. I was all over the place. I'm really glad that I was able to put myself together in the second set, and things clicked. Yeah, I was able to get this win."
The win over Putintseva secured Sabalenka the World No. 1 rank, at least for a short while. Even if she wins the title, she won't rise to the spot immediately after the Wuhan Open. Swiatek will have 9,785 points after the tournament, while Sabalenka's total can only increase to 9,716 points.
At the moment, the Belarusian is guaranteed to have at least 8,931 points to her name after the event. However, on October 21st, the points from last year's WTA Finals will drop, and since Swiatek won that tournament, she will be hurt by that much more.
Her points total will drop to 8,285, while Sabalenka's will drop only to 8,306. That means that the Belarusian player will become the World No. 1 again, but Swiatek will have a chance to change that at the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh, which will run from November 2nd to 9th.
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