Iga Swiatek's reign at No. 1 was ended by Aryna Sabalenka on Monday due to a very controversial penalty inflicted on both women.
Swiatek's final week at No. 1, for now at least, was her 50th consecutive at the top of the rankings. That made the 23-year-old just the seventh woman in tennis history to have multiple spells of 50 weeks or more as the best female player in the world.
Sabalenka briefly overtook Swiatek after the 2023 US Open, but the Pole regained her spot at No. 1 by winning the WTA Finals, including a triumph against the Belarusian in the semifinal.
It seemed like Swiatek was destined to finish 2024 as the world No. 1 again before the North American hardcourt season. She amassed a considerable lead over Sabalenka, who was No. 3 behind Coco Gauff at the time.
However, Sabalenka's decision to skip the Olympics proved to be wise. After getting match practice at the Citi Open and Canadian Open, she won the Cincinnati Open and her maiden US Open, beating Jessica Pegula in both finals.
Swiatek then did not play in any tournaments during the Asian swing after splitting with her longtime coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. Naomi Osaka's former coach, Wim Fissette, was hired as Wiktorowski's replacement.
The four-time French Open champion's absence from Asia gave Sabalenka the ideal chance to close the gap further, and she did that by beating home favorite Qinwen Zheng in the Wuhan Open final.
Sabalenka's success in Wuhan meant she was guaranteed to move ahead of Swiatek anyway in two weeks when the Pole drops her points from last year's WTA Finals. Neither Swiatek nor Sabalenka will play any other tournaments before the WTA Finals.
But Sabalenka overtook her rival at the top of the rankings this week because of the WTA's rules regarding mandatory WTA-500 tournaments, which had been a source of controversy before this latest development.
WTA rules state that players at the top must play at least six WTA-500 tournaments during the season. Otherwise, they will face penalties such as losing points from events they did participate in during the year.
Neither woman met the minimum requirement of six tournaments at that level. Swiatek only played two events at the United Cup and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, while Sabalenka entered the Brisbane International, Belin Open, Citi Open, and the event in Stuttgart.
Both players were penalized by having the points from their lowest-earning tournaments scrapped. Sabalenka's defeat in the second round of the Dubai Championships meant she only lost ten points.
Unfortunately for Swiatek, she dropped 120 points from reaching the fourth round of the Miami Open. That leaves her on 9,665 points compared to Sabalenka's 9,706, allowing this year's US Open champion to move to No. 1.
Swiatek has previously expressed dislike for the rule about mandatory WTA-500 tournaments and the lengthy tennis calendar as a whole. Losing the world No. 1 ranking two weeks earlier because of the rule will likely increase that disdain further.
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