Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek among top WTA players bracing ranking points deduction for controversial rule

Some of the top WTA stars are set to receive the consequences of not playing in enough 500 events, with key rankings points being docked from their tally. This includes the top two players Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swatek.

There are a whole host of tournaments held throughout the year in a variety of continents, climates, countries, and surfaces. The tennis season practically never ends, in a continuous loop of events. This does take its toll on players with there being more tournaments to play in than they can physically manage.

It is a big talking point in tennis, as tournaments continue to get longer and larger, and new events are spontaneously being announced. Especially if you are one of the top players in the world who regularly goes deep into tournaments, thus playing more matches, then it does take its toll.

However, the WTA are not so sympathetic about this, with players ordered to compete in a certain amount of specific tournaments a year, with a mandatory six WTA 500 events demanded to be played in. This is on top of the four Grand Slam events and 10 WTA 1000 competitions. In total, the top players are expected to compete in 21 tournaments, with the 18 best results being added to their ranking.

Consequences will appear if you have not reached this certain number, which is what has occurred for not just Sabalenka and Swiatek, but for American trio Coco Gauff, Amanda Anidimova and Madison Keys. If you fail to compete in the six WTA 500 events asked for, you will be 'zeroed out'. Ranking points from other events played in will be sacrificed, with the lowest number of points earned the first to make way. However, many missed from a specific bracket will be punished with zero points from your worst result of the year.

These athletes have seen their tally of ranking points slowly dwindle with the updated order being released on 20th October. Sabalenka, Gauff and Anisimova all lost 10 points, Keys 54 and Swiatek 65. This does not change the order in any way, as each of them stay put for now, although with more missed 500 events, they are set to lose even more.

Sabalenka, Swiatek, Gauff, and Anisimova have only featured in three 500 events this year, whereas Keys has appeared in four. This means more zero pointers will be destined for these players with events running out in 2025. None of them competed in the recent Ningbo Open, which will lead to the next zero pointer.

There is only one WTA 500 competition left this year, with it being the Pan Pacific Open currently on-going in Tokyo. With it not featuring any of these quintuple of players, their rankings will continue to slide thanks to this controversial rule. They will also be unable to limit the damage in the Hong Kong Open and Jiangxi Open commencing on 27th October due to them being 250 events, but these may be overlooked anyway for the WTA Finals in Riyadh, which they have all qualified for. 

While it is yet to be seen if the rankings get a shake-up from this, Swiatek found out the hard way last year from this method of deduction, losing her number one ranking to the current world number one Sabalenka. Back in October, the Belarusian regained top spot after this rule was implemented after the six-time Grand Slam champion competed in just two WTA 500 tournaments.

It is obvious that the best players in the world are being forced to play so much, with fans expecting to go to their favourite tournament and see the best players in the world regularly feature. There are less guarantees of that happening for some events, with players choosing to suffer in the rankings due to a lack of events competed in rather than feature. While many players have spoken about it, nothing has been done to change the system.