Aryna Sabalenka’s return to top spot in the WTA rankings after leapfrogging Iga Swiatek has set up a thrilling end to the season, with next month’s WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia likely to prove decisive in the race to end the year as world number one.
Sabalenka has enjoyed a spectacular season, defending her Australian Open title in January and adding the US Open trophy to her cabinet last month, as well as enjoying victories in Cincinnati and Wuhan.
Players are mandated to compete in six WTA 500 events but Swiatek’s decision to skip the tour’s Asian swing due to fatigue meant the French Open champion will only manage to play in two this season. The penalties saw her drop below Poland’s Sabalenka in the rankings.
Sabalenka spent eight weeks at the summit last year before Swiatek overtook her with a victory at the season-ending WTA Finals and the Belarusian hopes for a longer stay as ‘N1’.
“N1... Let’s see for how long this time,” she posted on X yesterday after the latest rankings were released.
Sabalenka is also not in action this week after her Wuhan success and will lose points for only playing in four WTA 500 events. She currently has 9,706 points while Swiatek has 9,665 ahead of the Finals, which will offer 1,500.
The Finals will be held on hard courts in Riyadh from Nov. 2-9 and feature the top eight singles players and doubles teams.
Coco’s US team to face Canada in United Cup group stageTop seeds the United States will face neighbours Canada in the group stage when Coco Gauff makes her debut in the third edition of the United Cup mixed team tournament in Sydney and Perth at the start of next season.
World number three Gauff will be joined in the US team by Taylor Fritz, Denis Kudla, Robert Galloway, Desirae Krawczyk and Danielle Collins, who recently backtracked on her decision to retire at the end of the 2024 season.
At yesterday’s draw, the Americans were also pitted against an as yet undecided nation in Group A, which will be played out in Perth.
The 17th and 18th teams will be decided based on the rankings of Nov. 19, but organisers confirmed that Serbia’s Novak Djokovic has decided not to make the tournament part of his preparations for a tilt at an 11th Australian Open title.
Reigning champions Germany, who will be spearheaded by world number three Alexander Zverev, face China, who feature Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, and Brazil in Group E, also in Perth.
Zverev looks set to be the highest ranked man in the tournament in the absence of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, while world number five Daniil Medvedev’s Russia remains barred by sanctions put in place after the invasion of Ukraine. Belarus is excluded for the same reason so Australian and US Open winner Aryna Sabalenka will be absent, but five-times Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek headlines a strong Polish team also featuring Hubert Hurkacz. The Poles, runners-up last year, will play their Group B matches against the Czech Republic and Norway in Sydney.
“I think this year’s entry list is probably the strongest overall that we’ve seen in the three years of the competition,” said tournament director Stephen Farrow. “We’ve got six of the seven of the top 10 players in the world on the women’s side, six of the top 12 on the men’s side. And it is going to be an absolutely brilliant competition.”