Iga Swiatek has reduced Aryna Sabalenka's lead at the top of the world rankings to three digits as the season inches to its climax.
The Polish superstar won the 2023 China Open this past week - her first WTA 1000 of the season in scintillating style, dropping just one set throughout the week. She ended Coco Gauff's 16-match winning streak at the event before romping to the title in Sunday's final.
Swiatek, who now has 8,890 points is just 590 points behind Sabalenka in the latest rankings and the world No. 1 ranking will be decided at the season finale in Cancun. Both players won't play at any WTA tournament between now and the end of October.
The rest of the Top 10 remains unchanged, but results in Beijing sealed the last three spots at the WTA Finals. Marketa Vondrousova, Ons Jabeur, and Karolina Muchova will join the current Top 5 of Sabalenka, Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, and Elena Rybakina in the eight-woman field.
Jelena Ostapenko and Liudmila Samsonova made big moves in the world's Top 20. Ostapenko rose to 13th after her quarterfinal run in Beijing, which was incidentally ended by Samsonova. The Russian, for her part, rejoins the Top 20 after she briefly exited it a few weeks ago.
Sofia Kenin climbs into the world's Top 30, while China's Xinyu Wang rises to a new career-high mark of No. 32. There is a new entrant in the world's Top 50 and that happens to be Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva who made the round of 16 in Beijing as a qualifier and nearly earned a Top 10 win over Rybakina.
Alycia Parks exits the Top 50 now that those points earned from the second half of last season are being chalked off. Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova rises 10 spots to 88th, but 21-year-old American Caty McNally who hasn't played since Wimbledon cascaded to 96th.
Elsewhere, French veteran Alize Cornet dropped out of the world's Top 100 for the first time since 2012. You can track the latest movements of all the players by visiting our dedicated rankings page.
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