Why Iga Swiatek lost more points and was overtaken by Aryna Sabalenka as the World No. 1 ahead of WTA Finals 2024.

Aryna Sabalenka has supplanted Iga Swiatek as the World No. 1 this week. The former closed the gap in the last few months with her triumphs at the Cincinnati Open, the US Open, and the Wuhan Open. The latter, meanwhile, skipped the Asian swing completely.

Following Sabalenka’s victory at the Wuhan Open, her third consecutive title at the venue, she tailed her younger rival by a handful of points. She had 9,716 points to her name last week, while Swiatek was on top with 9,785 points. However, both players dropped a few points this week as a penalty for not participating in enough WTA 500 events.

All players were supposed to compete in at least six WTA 500 tournaments starting from this year. Swiatek entered only two such events, the United Cup and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. Sabalenka, meanwhile, took part in four of them. With the season coming to an end, it was clear that these two wouldn’t fulfill their obligations.

As such, both were hit with the zero-pointer penalty for not meeting this requirement. That is, their lowest score from a tournament which counted towards their ranking was nullified. Swiatek dropped 120 points she gained from her fourth-round finish at the Miami Open, while Sabalenka lost 10 points from her second-round exit from the Dubai Tennis Championships.

After deducting these points, Sabalenka was left with 9,706 points, and Swiatek had 9,665 points. Thus, the Belarusian rose to the top this week to commence her ninth week atop the summit. She ascended to the top of the rankings for the first time after the conclusion of last year’s US Open and remained there for eight weeks.

Both players will drop more points next week as well due to their absence from the mandated WTA 500 tournaments. Sabalenka will drop down to 9,641 points as she will lose 65 points from her third-round appearance at the Miami Open. Swiatek, on the other hand, will forfeit 195 points from her semifinal showing in Stuttgart, and her next week’s tally will stand at 9,470 points.