Iga Swiatek
has entered the list of the top ten players with the most weeks as world No. 1
and has matched
Caroline Wozniacki's record.
The Polish
player continues to accumulate weeks as the world No. 1 and has reached a
consecutive total of 71 weeks as the leader of the rankings.
Swiatek's
71 consecutive weeks at the top position puts her on par with Caroline
Wozniacki, who held the world No. 1 ranking for a total of 71 weeks from 2010
to 2018.
Interestingly,
Wozniacki will be making her return to professional tennis this week after her
retirement at the 2020 Australian Open. She will debut against the Australian
player Kimberly Birrell.
Among the
female tennis players with the highest number of weeks at world No. 1, Steffi
Graf leads the list with 377 weeks, followed by
Martina Navratilova with 332
weeks, and
Serena Williams with 319 weeks.
Other
former players who still feature on the list include
Chris Evert, Martina
Hingis,
Monica Seles,
Ashleigh Barty,
Justine Henin, and
Lindsay Davenport, all
of whom have retired from professional tennis.
Among the
active players who have already reached world No. 1, the closest contenders to
Swiatek's 71 weeks are Simona Halep with 64 weeks and Victoria Azarenka with 51
weeks.
This puts
them ahead of other former world No. 1 players like Naomi Osaka, Angelique
Kerber, Venus Williams, Karolina Pliskova, and Garbiñe Muguruza.
Although
Swiatek has maintained her dominance in the
WTA rankings since Barty's
retirement, Sabalenka had a chance to break Swiatek's streak if she had reached
the Wimbledon final. However, Sabalenka fell in the semifinals against Ons
Jabeur.
In the
upcoming weeks, the 20-year-old Swiatek will be competing in the WTA 1000
Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open, tournaments where she has not achieved significant
results in the past, only reaching the round of 16. These tournaments will give
her the opportunity to earn points for her ranking.
However, at
the US Open, Swiatek will have to defend 2000 points from her title win in
2022. She will also have to keep a close eye on Sabalenka in the WTA rankings,
as the Belarusian has had a better 2023 season.
Despite
both players winning a Grand Slam this year, Sabalenka has accumulated 500
points more than Swiatek and is putting pressure on her rival.
