The rule that led to Aryna Sabalenka becoming No. 1 this week was controversial, but the same WTA regulation will punish her and Iga Swiatek for a second time.
Swiatek has spoken several times this year about the season being too lengthy. She also believes the number of mandatory tournaments on the WTA Tour is unnecessary and harmful to players.
Despite those fears, the five-time Grand Slam champion still managed to retain her spot at No. 1 for most of 2024, including becoming just the seventh woman in tennis history to have multiple spells of 50 weeks or more at No. 1.
However, despite starting the North American hardcourt season at No. 3 behind Coco Gauff and trailing Swiatek at No. 1 by a large number of points, Sabalenka drastically reduced the gap by winning the Cincinnati Open and the US Open.
The Belarusian’s chances of overtaking Swiatek in the rankings were further helped by the 23-year-old skipping the Asian swing after splitting with her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, after nearly three years.
Swiatek hired Naomi Osaka’s former coach, Wim Fissette, as Wiktorowski’s replacement, but she will not play any tournaments until the WTA Finals, starting November 2nd in Riyadh.
That means Swiatek is guaranteed to drop the 1500 points she earned from winning last year’s WTA Finals. The race to be the year-end No. 1 last year went to the wire, but the Pole claimed the spot by triumphing at the WTA Finals.
Swiatek dropping those points and Sabalenka winning the Wuhan Open guaranteed the US Open champion would move ahead of the Pole before the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh, where the year-end No. 1 ranking will be decided.
However, Sabalenka became No. 1 two weeks earlier than expected because of the WTA’s rule that top players must play a minimum of six WTA-500 tournaments throughout the season, which neither woman did.
Losing those points from her time in Miami was enough for Sabalenka to overtake Swiatek in the rankings on Monday, and the bad news continues for last year’s WTA Finals champion.
Swiatek and Sabalenka are set to be punished by the same rule about WTA-500 tournaments before the WTA Finals. Once again, points from their lowest-earning tournaments will be removed, which hurts Swiatek the most again.
Sabalenka’s punishment is losing 65 from the Miami Open, but Swiatek’s 195 points from the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix will be removed because of the WTA’s controversial rule.
Swiatek was already going to be the underdog to end the year at No. 1, but her chances of overtaking Sabalenka at the WTA Finals have now been reduced further.
