Sabalenka and Swiatek battle for top spot at WTA Finals

Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek are all set to battle for the year-end number one ranking, which will be decided at the week’s WTA Finals which get underway in Riyadh on Saturday.

Sabalenka “unexpectedly” recaptured the top spot last week after Iga Swiatek dropped points for not fulfilling mandatory tournament requirements this season, and enters the competition in Saudi Arabia as the number one seed.

The Belarusian however is more concerned about concluding the year at the summit of the rankings, and wants to avoid last season’s scenario, where she surrendered the position in the closing week of her campaign as Swiatek clinched the WTA Finals title.

Sabalenka has had an incredible 2024, which included two Grand Slam title runs at the Australian Open and US Open.

She secured a third consecutive Wuhan trophy last month and said she was surprised when she learned she had snatched the world number one ranking from Swiatek before the WTA Finals.

“I was like, ‘How, what happened? Where did she lose those 100 points?’ I didn’t expect that,” Sabalenka told reporters in Riyadh on the eve of her Saturday opener against Zheng Qinwen.

“I woke up that morning and my boyfriend was like, ‘Congrats, you became world number one’, I was like, ‘What? I didn’t do anything’, kind of like in that moment. I was like, ‘Whatever, I’ll take it’.”

Sabalenka holds a comfortable 1,046-point advantage over her Polish rival in the rankings, which means Swiatek must defend her WTA Finals title to have any chance of clinching the year-end number one spot.

“I want to finish the year as number one, then I’ll be okay. I’ll be more confident in saying I’m world number one, not just because someone lost 100 points,” said the 26-year-old Sabalenka.

Swiatek arrives in Riyadh having not played since her US Open quarter-final exit in early September.

The five-time grand slam champion parted ways with her coach of three years Tomasz Wiktorowski and decided to skip the Asian swing to focus on finding a new mentor: new hire Wim Fissette, who used to coach Naomi Osaka, will be with her for the first time in Riyadh.

Swiatek says she doesn’t feel rusty coming into the tournament and actually practised with Sabalenka ahead of this weekend’s kick-off.

“I am determined, I want to play my best game here and win this,” said Swiatek.

Zverev enters Paris Masters semis: Germany’s Alexander Zverev beat fierce rival Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters on Friday, where he is seeking his first title after losing to Daniil Medvedev in the 2020 final.

The world number three -- the highest-ranked player left in the draw -- will face either 13th seed Holger Rune or ninth seed Alex de Minaur in Saturday’s semi-final.

The 16th meeting between the 27-year-old German and 26-year-old Greek was evenly matched during a hard-fought first set.

“At the beginning, he was outplaying me but then I found my rhythm from the baseline,” said Zverev on court.

“And when I had my chance I used it in the first set.”

Agencies