2021 WTA Race to Shenzhen: Barty leads race ahead of Sabalenka and Osaka

The 2021 WTA Race to Shenzhen is the race to the final event of the WTA season which is the WTA Finals.

The WTA Finals have been held in Shenzen since 2019 with only one edition held so far. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to the pandemic but the event will return in 2021. Similar to the ATP Finals it represents the final event where 8 of the best tennis players in the previous calendar year compete for the title of the best.

The 2021 race is well underway and the current leader is Ashleigh Barty who is also the world number one. She leads comfortably ahead of Aryna Sabalenka by 800 points followed by Naomi Osaka. The notable difference between those top 3 is that Osaka only played 5 events compared to 9 for Sabalenka and 8 for Barty.

Muguruza is currently ranked 4th, Swiatek 5th, Brady 6th, Mertens 7th and Kudermetova at 8th. If the season ended today those players would play in Shenzen but they are closely followed by Pegula at 9 and Svitolina at 10. Check out the race rankings below.

1 BARTY, ASHLEIGH AUS 3,311

2 SABALENKA, ARYNA BLR 2,527

3 OSAKA, NAOMI JPN 2,466

4 MUGURUZA, GARBIÑE ESP 2,085

5 SWIATEK, IGA POL 1,955

6 BRADY, JENNIFER USA 1,678

7 MERTENS, ELISE BEL 1,577

8 KUDERMETOVA, VERONIKA RUS 1,522

9 PEGULA, JESSICA USA 1,317

10 SVITOLINA, ELINA UKR 1,316

11 GAUFF, CORI USA 1,280

12 KREJCIKOVA, BARBORA CZE 1,258

13 PLISKOVA, KAROLINA CZE 1,235

14 KVITOVA, PETRA CZE 1,146

15 MUCHOVA, KAROLINA CZE 1,126

16 SAKKARI, MARIA GRE 1,106

17 BADOSA, PAULA ESP 1,066

18 KASATKINA, DARIA RUS 1,057

19 JABEUR, ONS TUN 1,005

20 WILLIAMS, SERENA USA 996

21 HALEP, SIMONA ROU 901

22 ANDREESCU, BIANCA CAN 890

23 BENCIC, BELINDA SUI 879

24 KONTAVEIT, ANETT EST 871

25 SORRIBES TORMO, SARA ESP 833