WTA Prize Money Leaders Update | Rybakina holds firm at the top, Bejlek and Boulter climb the ranks

The Middle-East swing of the WTA Tour began last week, and the first tournaments after the Australian Open already have their winners. Without the presence of the most prominent names in the ranking—such as Sabalenka, Swiatek, or Gauff—the first week of February produced several surprising champions, who earned significant prize money and reshuffled the Prize Money Leaders standings for 2026.

The one who remains immovable at the top is the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, champion of the Australian Open, who leads Sabalenka by more than one million dollars just a week after the Aussie Open.

The top-5 saw no changes, and none of the names are particularly surprising: Sabalenka (1.6M) and Gauff (1.04M) are the only ones who have already surpassed one million dollars in earnings, while not far behind are Iga Swiatek (972K) and Belinda Bencic (932K), both of whom mix their earnings between a strong United Cup campaign and their participation in the first major of the year.

Where the surprises appear is from 6th place onward, where Belgian Elise Mertens (932K) stands out. Despite not having major singles results, her doubles earnings elevate her into the top-10. Her campaign in the United Cup up to the semifinals (3 wins and 1 loss) allowed her to climb positions, as did her appearance in the 4th round of the Australian Open—although a significant portion of her earnings also comes from winning the women’s doubles title at the Australian Open, amounting to over $300K in prize money.

Jessica Pegula (900K) climbed to 7th place after reaching the semifinals in Brisbane International and the Australian Open. The other semifinalist in Melbourne was Elina Svitolina, who reached 8th place (847K) after also winning her first trophy of the year at the ASB Classic in Auckland at the start of the season.

The upper part of the top-10 is followed by the current teenage stars: Victoria Mboko (621K) and Iva Jovic (542K) complete the top-10—both after reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open—and are closely followed by Mirra Andreeva (541K), another teenager, who is in 11th place. This week in Doha, whoever goes further among them will advance in positions and begin to mark differences after the first WTA 1000 of the season.

In the first week of February, the most significant trophy was the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi Open, which had an unexpected champion: 20-year-old Sara Bejlek, a young Czech who came from the qualifiers and lifted her first professional trophy. She took home $185,500, already surpassing $300K for the year, which positions her at No. 25.

Her rival in the final—Ekaterina Alexandrova—remains just behind at 27th place, with $297K in earnings for the year—$50K of which came from doubles.

Meanwhile, in the WTA 250 tournaments, the champions were Katie Boulter at the Ostrava Open—climbing to 95th place in seasonal prize money—and Sorana Cirstea at the Transylvania Open—surpassing $225K in earnings and reaching No. 45 in the season’s Prize Money leaderboard.

The runners-up also saw rises: notable among them was Raluca Olaru (assumed “Raduncua”) who moved up to No. 29, while Tamara Korpatsch—the finalist in Ostrava—advanced to No. 138, totaling $79K.