Sabalenka closes in on Swiatek in WTA rankings

PARIS: Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka climbed to second in the new WTA rankings released on Monday after claiming her first Grand Slam title as Poland’s Iga Swiatek retained top spot.

The Belarusian advanced three places to reach her highest ranking since August 2021 at the expense of Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur who slips to third.

Jessica Pegula of the United States fell one place to fourth and France’s Caroline Garcia dropped to fifth.

Elena Rybakina, who lost out to Sabalenka over three sets in Saturday’s final in Melbourne, climbed 15 places to a career-best ranking of 10th.

The Kazakh received no rankings points for winning Wimbledon last year following the All England Club’s decision to ban players from Russia and Belarus because of the invasion of Ukraine.

Former world number one Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic returned to the top 20 as she leaped 11 places to 20th.

WTA rankings (Players representing Russia and Belarus are banned from competing under the name or flag of their countries):

1. Iga Swiatek (POL) 10485

2. Aryna Sabalenka 6100 (+3)

3. Ons Jabeur (TUN) 5210 (-1)

4. Jessica Pegula (USA) 5000 (-1)

5. Caroline Garcia (FRA) 4645 (-1)

6. Cori Gauff (USA) 3992 (+1)

7. Maria Sakkari (GRE) 3811 (-1)

8. Daria Kasatkina 3380

9. Belinda Bencic (SUI) 2905 (+1)

10. Elena Rybakina (KAZ) 2815 (+15)

11. Veronika Kudermetova 2740 (-2)

12. Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) 2340 (+5)

13. Petra Kvitova (CZE) 2281 (+2)

14. Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA) 2195

15. Simona Halep (ROM) 2141 (-3)

16. Victoria Azarenka 2138 (+8)

17. Ekaterina Alexandrova 2030 (+1)

18. Anett Kontaveit (EST) 1909 (+1)

19. Liudmila Samsonova 1905 (+1)

20. Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 1880 (+11)