Iga Swiatek would have overtaken Barty in new rankings anyway

Iga Swiatek won her fourth title in succession at the Stuttgart Open last week and the latest WTA rankings show that she now has more ranking points than Ashleigh Barty had when she retired.

Swiatek’s incredible form of late has seen her win 23 consecutive matches –– tieing Naomi Osaka’s streak from 2020 to 21. Swiatek assumed the number one ranking from Barty last month, after the Australian’s shock revelation that she was stepping away from the game.

At the time of her retirement, Barty was more than 2000 ranking points ahead of Swiatek, having won her third Grand Slam title at the Australian Open earlier this year. But remarkably, the latest WTA rankings show that Swiatek may actually have overtaken Barty, even if she hadn’t announced her retirement.

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On March 28th –– the last time the rankings updated prior to Barty being removed –– the Australian had 7980 points. Meanwhile, as of Monday, April 25th, Swiatek has 7181 points. Had Barty remained in the rankings, she would’ve lost 1000 points from failing to try and defend her Miami Open title from 2021 and would actually have been on less than 7000 points, heading into April.

Obviously, this doesn’t necessarily prove once and for all that Swiatek would definitely have overtaken Barty. The Australian may well have chosen to play at the Stuttgart Open and given her unbeaten start to 2022 –– there is every chance she may have won the competition.