Swiatek No Longer Longest-Reigning World No. 1 Among Active WTA Players

| by Zachary Wimer

Iga Swiatek isn't the longest-reigning World No. 1 among active players on the WTA Tour anymore after recent developments.

The World of tennis moves, and it moves very quickly. Only about a year ago, Ashleigh Barty was an undisputed World No. 1 on the WTA Tour, spending a total of 121 weeks atop the WTA Rankings from 2019 until 2022.

Some 65 weeks later, it's Swiatek who took over on April 4th, 2022 and never left the top spot. Because of that, she became the longest-reigning World No. 1 among active players on the WTA Tour, surpassing Simona Halep's 64 weeks.

However, even though the Pole still leads the rankings, and started to turn into a grass specialist ahead of Wimbledon, she doesn't hold the record anymore, and the reason for it is quite simple.

Swiatek didn't lose it because someone would surpass her right now, as that's impossible since she's the World No. 1. The Pole lose the spot because another player came out of retirement, a player that spent more weeks as the highest-ranked player than Swiatek.

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That player is obviously Caroline Wozniacki. The Dane surprised everyone when she announced her shocking comeback to tennis, and by doing so, she also became the longest-serving World No. 1 on the WTA Tour among active players.

Wozniacki rose to the top spot for the first time on October 11th, 2010, taking it from the 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams. She became the 20th World No. 1 on the WTA Tour and held the spot for 18 weeks during her initial reign.

She was then interrupted for one week by Kim Clijsters, but on February 21st, 2011, Wozniacki became the World No. 1 again, this time serving for 49 weeks to bring her total to 67. This time, Victoria Azarenka stopped the Dane, who didn't rise to the top spot for the following six years.

But in 2018, after her memorable Australian Open triumph, she took the spot from then World No. 1 and her final opponent Simona Halep, adding another four weeks to bring her total to 71. That is currently more than Swiatek's 65 weeks, but the Pole has all the aces up her sleeve to surpass the Dane in seven weeks' time and also enter the Top 10 in number of weeks spent as World No. 1 among women.

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