Ranking Reaction

Iga Swiatek surpasses Ashleigh Barty for standalone seventh-most weeks as WTA No. 1

She now only trails Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Chris Evert, Martina Hingis and Monica Seles.

Published Sep 23, 2024

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Last week she tied seventh place, and this week it’s all hers.

Iga Swiatek has passed Ashleigh Barty for seventh-most weeks at No. 1 in WTA rankings history, this being her 122nd at the top spot.

Official WTA rankings began on November 3rd, 1975.

MOST CAREER WEEKS AS WTA NO. 1 (100+ weeks):
377: Steffi Graf
332: Martina Navratilova
319: Serena Williams
260: Chris Evert
209: Martina Hingis
178: Monica Seles
122: Iga Swiatek
121: Ashleigh Barty
117: Justine Henin

Swiatek’s stranglehold on No. 1 could come under threat this fall, especially after her withdrawal from this week’s WTA 1000 event in Beijing—where she’s the defending champion—due to personal matters. World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka can’t pass her in Beijing, but she can almost catch her, and then while she’s only defending semifinal points at the WTA Finals, Swiatek is defending the title.

Swiatek has finished the last two seasons at No. 1.

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Meanwhile, there’s another milestone for the men’s No. 1, as Jannik Sinner spends his 100th career week in the Top 10 of the ATP rankings.

The 23-year-old Italian, who first broke into the Top 10 in November 2021, has spent more than half of those 100 weeks—52—in the Top 5.

This is his 16th consecutive week at No. 1.

SINNER’S 100 WEEKS IN THE TOP 10 BY RANKING:
No. 1: 16 weeks [including this week]
No. 2: 10 weeks
No. 3: 6 weeks
No. 4: 20 weeks
No. 5: 0 weeks
No. 6: 4 weeks
No. 7: 3 weeks
No. 8: 14 weeks
No. 9: 6 weeks
No. 10: 21 weeks

For now, there are no significant threats to Sinner’s No. 1 ranking—he’s up 4,105 points at the top of the ATP rankings (11,180 points to No. 2 Alexander Zverev’s 7,075) and 2,885 points at the top of the year-to-date standings (9,000 points to No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz’s 6,115).

Sinner made his Top 10 debut as a 20-year-old on November 1st, 2021, after a semifinal run in Vienna.

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A pair of former world No. 10s make notable moves up the WTA rankings, too: Beatriz Haddad Maia rises from No. 17 to No. 12 after winning the WTA 500 event in Seoul; and 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu continues her 2024 resurgence, rising from No. 70 to No. 56 after reaching the quarterfinals in the South Korean capital.

Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova makes an even bigger leap—a week after rising from No.136 to No. 102 after reaching her first WTA final in Monastir, she soars from No. 102 to No. 61 after winning her first WTA title in Hua Hin. Her career-high ranking before this was No. 89.

The ATP tournament week runs from last Wednesday to this Tuesday, with ATP 250 finals in Chengdu and Hangzhou, China that day, and the new ATP rankings will be run after those results come in.

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