The WTA Race is a very interesting one this year because Iga Swaitek is still not on top despite the recent Roland Garros triumph.
Iga Swiatek finished off her 2023 Roland Garros campaign with a trophy, lifting her 3rd trophy at the event so far in her career. It's been a very tricky campaign for her as she admitted that it was the toughest one yet.
The final certainly was as Karolina Muchova had a break in hand twice in the final set but still, Swiatek prevailed. The triumph allowed her to remain number one in the world but the 2023 WTA Race is a different thing.
Unlike the rankings, the race features only points that players have won so far in the calendar year as opposed to in the previous 365 days. Due to that, Swiatek is currently number two in the race, behind Aryna Sabalenka who is number one.
The Belarusian won the Australian Open and the Madrid Open making a few deep runs as well. It totalled 5620 points so far which is some 500 points more than Swiatek has. The Polish superstar has a total of 5145 points right now and that is after she got 2000 points from her French Open triumph.
While Sabalenka currently leads the race, she could possibly emerge on top of the rankings if she has a tremendous grass season, something that's not really expected out of Swiatek. Another player that is supposed to have a great grass season is Elena Rybakina.
She's the defending champion at Wimbledon but is missing the 2000 points from last year. Right now, Rybakina is 3rd with 4406 and if she has a strong Wimbledon again, she might emerge on top in both the race and rankings. So far it's been very consistent from her and had she not gotten sick in Paris, Rybakina would have likely been over 5000 points as well.
Those three will likely battle it out for the Top 3 rankings in the race meaning that we'll see all of them at the WTA Finals later this year. The battle for the number one rank in the rankings will be an interesting subplot to observe this year. There is a good chance that Swiatek might get replaced as number one after holding the spot for over a year.
The rest of the race looks vastly different from the field we saw at the WTA Finals last year. There is no Caroline Garcia, who won the event, there is no Ons Jabeur, and there is no Daria Kasatkina in the Top 8.
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula are currently 6th and 4th on the rankings. Karolina Muchova is 5th right now with Belinda Bencic and Barbora Krejcikova finishing off the Top 8 field, which would be at the Finals if the season ended today.
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