The first Grand Slam tournament of the 2023 season is complete, with brand new Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka spearheading a number of significant moves in the latest edition of the WTA Rankings.
Sabalenka returns to her career-high ranking of No.2. In her past three tournaments, the 24-year-old has collected 3,525 ranking points. In addition to earning 2,000 points for winning the title, Sabalenka also gained 470 points for winning the title at Adelaide 1 and 955 points for finishing as runner-up at last year’s WTA Finals.
Australian Open reaction
Even with her recent success, Sabalenka still trails current World No.1 Iga Swiatek by 4,385 points. However, through Roland Garros, Sabalenka is defending 1,115 ranking points compared to Swiatek’s 6,270 points.
For the meantime, Swiatek extended her stay at No.1 to 44 consecutive weeks, the fourth longest after debuting in that position. Only Stefanie Graf (186), Martina Hingis (80) and Serena Williams (57) own longer stays upon first climbing to the top.
Rybakina’s Top 10 debut
Elena Rybakina enters the WTA Top 10 in singles for the first time in her career this week, becoming the first player (male or female) representing Kazakhstan to break into the elite ranking bracket. She has risen from No.25 to No.10.
Rybakina’s journey to the Top 10 saw her reach the Portoroz final and Ostrava semifinals last year, in addition to reaching the quarterfinal stage at WTA 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells and Cincinnati.
Teenagers in Top 100
This week’s Top 100 includes four teenagers: Coco Gauff (No.6), Linda Fruhvirtova (No.51), Linda Noskova (No.56) and Diana Shnaider (No.94).
Gauff, the highest-ranked teenager, has been ranked in the Top 10 for 21 consecutive weeks and rises one spot to No.6 after reaching the Australian Open fourth round. She also holds the No.2 spot in the doubles rankings after reaching the semifinals in that discipline (with Jessica Pegula).
Fruhvirtova, the youngest in the Top 100 at 17 years old, advanced to the fourth round at the Australian Open, her second Grand Slam main-draw appearance. With that second-week appearance, the Czech jumps 31 spots in the rankings from No.82 to a career-high, No.51.
Noskova, although she lost in the opening round of qualifying at the Australian Open, equals her career-high ranking this week at No.56. The 18-year-old started the season by advancing to the final at Adelaide 1 via qualifying, losing in the…