WTA Rankings Update: Jessica Pegula closing in on US Number 1 after Dubai triumph, new career highs for Jovic, Eala and Tjen

WTA
Monday, 23 February 2026 at 10:42
Jessica Pegula was in a whole heap of battles in the Asian swing
The WTA Rankings have been updated after the latest week and ahead of another one which will see ATX Open in Austin take place on the run in towards Indian Wells and Miami.
Jessica Pegula was crowned the champion in Dubai winning the final this past weekend seeing off Elina Svitolina and while she did not rise in this weeks rankings, she was one of the big winners.
Pegula now sits in 5th and is only just behind Coco Gauff in the race to become American No.1. Pegula who has just turned 32 in the ultimate birthday present also helps to reduce some of the blow that her not defending certain tournaments she won last year would've had otherwise.
Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek also got away with not playing this past week. Sabalenka in particular was always ok in this regard as she was always set to remain at the top as her lead was over 3,000 points at the start of the tournament. But challengers did have the potential to strip that way.
Swiatek in second was under pressure from Elena Rybakina in particular who had the opportunity to overtake her with a deep run at the event, but Swiatek's lead has instead grown. Sabalenka now holds a 3,217 lead over Swiatek while Swiatek is now 400 points ahead of Rybakina when it looked very likely that Swiatek would lose that spot only just last week.
Rybakina's lead over Gauff has also been reduced to 450 points after the American reached the semi-final before losing against Elina Svitolina. Gauff's lead over Pegula is now an issue as Pegula winning saw her erase and then add to her tally. Pegula added 880 points as she was defending 120 from 2025. Leaving her just 35 points adrift of Gauff and as of time of writing, she does intend to play in Austin.
This makes it all the more interesting as she could go into Indian Wells and Miami as the top American. Mirra Andreeva losing in Dubai early and being defending champion means she swapped places with Jasmine Paolini.
Jessica Pegula returns ball.
Top American spot begs for Pegula.

Rises and falls as rising stars reach career highs but top names plummet

Karolina Muchova winning Qatar did come at a tiny price as she went down to World No.13 as a result of withdrawing from Dubai. While others to rise though included Iva Jovic who reached the third round. She continues her success reaching World No.18.
Alexandra Eala reached the Quarter-Finals of a WTA 1000 for the first time beating Paolini before losing to Gauff and she is now World No.31 after starting the week World No.47. Janice Tjen also reached the Last 16 and continues to sit in that cluster of players really making a name for herself. She is also up 10 spots to World No.36 after her run.
Antonia Ruzic who beat Raducanu in the first round and lost in the Quarter-Finals is also up to a career best of World No.51, up 16 spots. While for former Grand Slam champions and top names, it was more pain.
Sofia Kenin is down 14 spots after an early exit to World No.44 and given a good run in Charleston last year could drop even more. Marketa Vondrousova continues her frustrating time of it and is down eight spots to just below Kenin. While Paula Badosa who retired from her second round is down 15 spots to World No.85.

WTA Rankings as of 23/2/26

(as per livetennis.eu)
#PlayerAgeCountryPts+/-
1Aryna Sabalenka27BLR10675
2Iga Świątek24POL7588
3Elena Rybakina26KAZ7253
4Coco Gauff21USA6803
5Jessica Pegula31USA6768
6Amanda Anisimova24USA6070
7Jasmine Paolini30ITA4047+1
8Mirra Andreeva18RUS4001-1
9Elina Svitolina31UKR3845
10Victoria Mboko19CAN3214
11Ekaterina Alexandrova31RUS2918+1
12Belinda Bencic28SUI2898+1
13Karolína Muchová29CZE2668-2
14Linda Nosková21CZE2421
15Madison Keys31USA2351+2
16Naomi Osaka28JPN2324
17Clara Tauson23DEN2095-2
18Iva Jovic18USA2095+2
19Ludmilla Samsonova27RUS2050-1
20Emma Navarro24USA2045-1
21Diana Shnaider21RUS1953
22Elise Mertens30BEL1936
23Anna Kalinskaya27RUS1813
24Qinwen Zheng23CHN1758
25Emma Raducanu23GBR1645
26Jeļena Ostapenko28LAT1600+1
27Leylah Fernandez23CAN1598+2
28Marta Kostyuk23UKR1583-2
29Maya Joint19AUS1549-1
30Xinyu Wang24CHN1438+3
31Alexandra Eala20PHI1432+16
32Maria Sakkari30GRE1410+2
33Jaqueline Cristian27ROU1367+6
34Marie Bouzková27CZE1347+4
35Sorana Cîrstea35ROU1344-3
36Janice Tjen23INA1341+10
37Sára Bejlek20CZE1341+4
38Loïs Boisson22FRA1337-3
39Ann Li25USA1333-3
40Mccartney Kessler26USA1324-9
41Elisabetta Cocciaretto25ITA1290-1
42Hailey Baptiste24USA1274+3
43Kateřina Siniaková29CZE1269-1
44Sofia Kenin27USA1267-14
45Markéta Vondroušová26CZE1263-8
46Tereza Valentová19CZE1256-3
47Magda Linette34POL1234+3
48Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro23ESP1202
49Dayana Yastremska25UKR1170-5
50Barbora Krejčíková30CZE1156+3
51Antonia Ružić23CRO1130+16
52Sonay Kartal24GBR1127-1
53Laura Siegemund37GER1110-1
54Veronika Kudermetova28RUS1089-5
55Tatjana Maria38GER1079-1
56Varvara Gracheva25FRA1072+4
57Magdalena Fręch28POL1053-2
58Daria Kasatkina28AUS1052+3
59Emiliana Arango25COL1027-3
60Elsa Jacquemot22FRA1026-3
61Camila Osorio24COL991+1
62Peyton Stearns24USA988-4
63Cristina Bucșa28ESP984
64Solana Sierra21ARG980
65Anna Bondár28HUN978
66Beatriz Haddad Maia29BRA942
67Caty McNally24USA928+1
68Eva Lys24GER923-9
69Katie Boulter29GBR904+6
70Petra Marčinko20CRO902-1
71Oleksandra Oliynykova25UKR894
72Elena-Gabriela Ruse28ROU892+8
73Francesca Jones25GBR890-1
74Ajla Tomljanović32AUS881-1
75Viktorija Golubic33SUI881+13
76Oksana Selekhmeteva23RUS878-2
77Yulia Putintseva31KAZ871+1
78Danielle Collins32USA865+1
79Julia Grabher29AUT859+2
80Kimberly Birrell27AUS857+14
81Zeynep Sönmez23TUR851+3
82Ella Seidel21GER851+13
83Simona Waltert25SUI850-1
84Anna Blinkova27RUS848-1
85Paula Badosa28ESP846-15
86Shuai Zhang37CHN821-1
87Dalma Gálfi27HUN821-1
88Anastasia Zakharova24RUS819+16
89Renata Zarazúa28MEX814-2
90Olga Danilović25SRB811-1
91Anastasia Potapova24AUT810-15
92Kamilla Rakhimova24UZB802-1
93Kaja Juvan25SLO796-1
94Panna Udvardy27HUN792-1
95Alycia Parks25USA789-18
claps 0visitors 0
loading

Just In

Popular News

Latest Comments

Loading