WTA Race Update: Swiatek And Rybakina Put Pressure On Leader Sabalenka

| by Nurein Ahmed

Aryna Sabalenka has now led the WTA Race for an entire month, but she is feeling enormous pressure from those below her.

The Belarusian captured her second Grand Slam at last month's Australian Open to take control of the race and has not been knocked off from the summit for the whole of February. Sabalenka has compiled 2,335 points from three tournaments in 2024.

However, Iga Switek and Elena Rybakina moved within touching distance of the race leader after the conclusion of the Middle East swing. World No. 1 Swiatek completed a rare three-peat at the Qatar Open and was a semifinalist in Dubai. She is in third spot with 2,020 points.

Rybakina, meanwhile, reached successive finals in Abu Dhabi and Doha, winning the title in the former. She has tallied 2,043 points and ranks second in the race. China's Qinwen Zheng has dropped to fourth place, with the bulk of her 1,710 points coming from her shock runner-up finish in Melbourne.

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Jelena Ostapenko, like Rybakina, is a double champion this season and sits in fifth spot. Italy's Jasmine Paolini won her first WTA 1000 title at the Dubai Championships and soared an astonishing 25 places in the race to a high of sixth.

Paolini's exploits in the Gulf push Coco Gauff down to seventh, with Dubai runner-up Anna Kalinskaya sitting cozily in eighth, which is normally the last coveted spot for those players seeking to qualify for the WTA Finals.

Dayana Yastremska and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova round up the Top 10. Czech teenager Linda Noskova is the youngest player in the Top 20 of the race, occupying 13th place, ranking ahead of the likes of Victoria Azarenka, Barbora Krejcikova, and Elina Svitolina.

The WTA Race will determine not just the year-end No. 1 but also the eight players who will play at the WTA Finals. The venue for this year's tournament has not been named despite increasing speculation it will be held in Saudi Arabia for the first time.

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2024 WTA Race as of February 26, 2024:

Rank Player Points
1 Aryna Sabalenka 2335
2 Elena Rybakina 2043
3 Iga Swiatek 2020
4 Qinwen Zheng 1710
5 Jelena Ostapenko 1478
6 Jasmine Paolini 1287
7 Coco Gauff 1255
8 Anna Kalinskaya 1237
9 Dayana Yastremska 915
10 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 854
11 Daria Kasatkina 848
12 Karolina Pliskova 831
13 Linda Noskova 770
14 Victoria Azarenka 715
15 Emma Navarro 663
16 Ekaterina Alexandrova 661
17 Marta Kostyuk 635
18 Sorana Cirstea 575
19 Barbora Krejcikova 539
20 Elina Svitolina 523
21 Elise Mertens 476
22 Magdalena Frech 470
23 Danielle Collins 433
24 Anastasia Potapova 411
25 Beatriz Haddad Maia 381
26 Donna Vekic 375
27 Leylah Fernandez 365
28 Marketa Vondrousova 365
29 Lin Zhu 362
30 Mirra Andreeva 358
31 Katerina Siniakova 346
32 Liudmila Samsonova 337
33 Clara Burel 329
34 Oceane Dodin 325
35 Jessica Pegula 300
36 Diana Shnaider 292
37 Maria Sakkari 291
38 Maria Timofeeva 290
39 McCartney Kessler 289
40 Lesia Tsurenko 281
41 Storm Hunter 281
42 Amanda Anisimova 270
43 Cristina Bucsa 266
44 Naomi Osaka 258
45 Ana Bogdan 247
46 Elisabetta Cocciaretto 246
47 Caroline Garcia 246
48 Katie Boulter 245
49 Yafan Wang 244
50 Xinyu Wang 244

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