WTA Race Update: Swiatek Leaps Into Top Three But Trails Leader Sabalenka

Iga Swiatek surged into the top three of the WTA Race after defending the Qatar Open title last Saturday.

The Polish star was down in ninth spot just a week ago, with a huge deficit on race leader Aryna Sabelnka. But the Belarusian did not compete in Doha, and Swiatek had the opportunity to truncate her lead by earning the full 1000 points up for grabs.

Swiatek created history by winning in Doha for the third straight year and joined Serena Williams (Miami 2015) to three-peat in the WTA tournament in the past nine years. She has now recorded 1,630 points since the start of 2024. Sabalenka hasn't added to her tally of 2.325 since leaving Melbourne.

Elena Rybakina took second spot after finishing as runner-up in Doha and is only 497 points behind Sabalenka. Qinwen Zheng and Jelena Ostapenko dropped to fourth and fifth, respectively, while Coco Gauff cascaded to sixth.

Dayana Yastremska is currently the highest-placed Ukrainian, sitting in the seventh spot with 905 points, the bulk of which was received from reaching the Australian Open semifinal as a qualifier.

We are barely two months into the new season, and the WTA Race is hotting up. It is starting to take a familiar look at the top. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova surged into ninth spot after reaching the semifinal in each of her last two tournaments.

The former French Open finalist has been in good form lately and is also a Top 30 player this week for the first time since recovering from a career-threatening knee injury. Karolina Pliskova motored to 11th spot, while Danielle Collins soared 24 spots to a high of 19th.

The WTA Race will determine the eight players that will qualify for the 2024 WTA Finals in a soon-to-be-named host country. With the way the race is shaping up, we might see some debutants and new names in this year's field. The race will also decide the year-end No. 1 ranking.