The Dubai Tennis Championships 2024 understandably dictated the changes in the WTA rankings that were updated on February 26. Finalists Jasmine Paolini and Anna Kalinskaya made huge jumps, while Maria Sakkari returned to the top 10. Iga Swiatek remained World No.1 as the top half of the top 10 saw no changes.
Finishing runner-up last year, Swiatek lost in the semi-finals this time around. Hence, she dropped 195 points. However, World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka also lost a nearly identical number of points after her early exit.
World No.4 Elena Rybakina gained over 100 points to close the gap on No.3, Coco Gauff. The Kazakh, though, withdrew due to injury, which could hamper her charge to regain third place. Jessica Pegula and Ons Jabeur, despite not playing in Dubai, held their places at World No.5 and No.6, respectively.
Marketa Vondrousova leapfrogged Qinwen Zheng into 7th place after reaching the quarterfinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships 2024. Maria Sakkari earned over 100 points to re-enter the top 10 at World No.9. Jelena Ostapenko dropped one place to round off the top 10 of the WTA rankings.
Outside the elite bracket, Paolini climbed to a career-high World No.14 rank after winning the WTA 1000 in Dubai. Runner-up Kalinskaya also achieved a career-best World No.24 place. Magdalena Frech was the other big mover, gaining 11 places to get to World No.42.
Barbora Krejcikova was one of the biggest losers, falling nine places to World No.21. She opted to skip the Dubai Championships 2024, which she had won last year. Other big names like Madison Keys, Marta Kostyuk, and Belinda Bencic also fell multiple places in the WTA rankings.
The San Diego Open and the ATX Open are two WTA Tour events currently underway. The likes of Pegula, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Sloane Stephens, Donna Vekic and more will feature in either of these events. However, as many big names gave these tournaments a miss, the live rankings suggest no major upheavals in the WTA rankings next week.
Like on the ATP side, the best of the best seem to have a chokehold on their spots. There is a nearly 900-point gap between Pegula in fifth and Jabeur in sixth. Hence, the top 5 seem set to headline the rankings in the near future while the subsequent names fight it out among each other.
