WTA Race to Riyadh after Rome Open: Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka gain, Iga Swiatek remains top and Elena Rybakina slides

The WTA Race to Riyadh has been updated after the Rome Open with the run-up to Roland Garros followed by Wimbledon and US Open in a row all very much proving vital to the run up to the WTA Finals.

Aryna Sabalenka sits second and despite coming up short in the Rome Open final against Iga Swiatek, she has managed to usurp Elena Rybakina who didn't play at the Rome Open so fell down as a result. She dislodged Rybakina who is third with 3,583 points. Swiatek cemented her spot at the top of the tree with 5,335 points by sealing the title.

Naomi Osaka while not being near the top eight climbed not only 30+ spots on the WTA Ranking, she climbed nine spots on the WTA Race. Another player on the comeback is Angelique Kerber also made it to the fourth round at the Rome Open. She climbed 16 spots in the ladder and is now ranked 78th with 322 points.

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WTA Ranking Update after Rome Open: Iga Swiatek breaks new points barrier as Danielle Collins and NaomI Osaka win big

Danielle Collins made the semi-finals of the Rome Open. She was beaten by Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 6-2 and added 390 points to her tally. She placed No.4 currently and is ahead of Coco Gauff who is in fifth. Qinwen Zheng, Jelena Ostapenko and Jasmine Paolini round out the top eight currently who will all qualify.

Marta Kostyuk and Maria Sakkari are also in contention for the top eight cut-off. The duo are placed at 9th and 10th and with a lot of the season to go as of now, it will likely change a lot before the end of the year. They sit on 1,695 and 1,591 points respectively. Daria Kasatkina and Anna Kalinskaya sit just outside of the top 10 due to earlier runs this season with the latter not having a run for sometime for instance. With Roland Garros coming up, the top five for instance likely won't be unseated.

But the latter three could be unsettled. Karolina Muchova for instance jumped into the top eight after reaching the final last year and another player could feasibly do that. But already a lot of players have put themselves in good positions. With continued runs, they will continue to climb the rankings. But the crux is that the top names likely won't have any issues in making it to Riyadh even with multiple tournaments left in the cycle.

WTA Race to Riyadh as of 20/05/2024

1 SWIATEK, IGA POL 5,335

2 SABALENKA, ARYNA 3,928

3 RYBAKINA, ELENA KAZ 3,583

4 COLLINS, DANIELLE USA 2,532

5 GAUFF, COCO USA 2,383

6 ZHENG, QINWEN CHN 2,070

7 OSTAPENKO, JELENA LAT 1,889

8 PAOLINI, JASMINE ITA 1,710

9 KOSTYUK, MARTA UKR 1,695

10 SAKKARI, MARIA GRE 1,591

11 KASATKINA, DARIA 1,543

12 KALINSKAYA, ANNA 1,510

13 AZARENKA, VICTORIA 1,503

14 NAVARRO, EMMA USA 1,328

15 PAVLYUCHENKOVA, ANASTASIA 1,252

16 YASTREMSKA, DAYANA UKR 1,181

17 ALEXANDROVA, EKATERINA 1,083

18 NOSKOVA, LINDA CZE 1,035

19 PEGULA, JESSICA USA 915

20 BOULTER, KATIE GBR 895

21 CIRSTEA, SORANA ROU 891

22 PLISKOVA, KAROLINA CZE 881

23 HADDAD MAIA, BEATRIZ BRA 852

24 MERTENS, ELISE BEL 849

25 KEYS, MADISON USA 791