Tokyo, 29 October. Elena Rybakina has secured first place in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) year-end rankings for 2026: after her second-round win over Yulia Putintseva at the tournament in Tokyo, world number two Aryna Sabalenka can no longer catch her.
Sabalenka has 7,550 points, and even victory at the WTA Finals, worth 1,500 points, would not let her overtake the Kazakh player. Rybakina will become the 17th player in the tour's history to finish a season as world number one, and the first from Kazakhstan to do so.
Rybakina first reached the top of the rankings in September: reaching the US Open semi-finals guaranteed her the lead, and she then won the tournament, beating Sabalenka 6:4, 5:7, 6:2 in the final. Earlier, in January, she won the Australian Open.
Rybakina began one of her first professional seasons ranked 425th in the world.
What it means: The year-end number one ranking reflects a whole season rather than a single week: Rybakina will finish 2026 on top regardless of the outcome of the WTA Finals.
Who benefits: Kazakh tennis – the country has its first year-end leader of the WTA rankings. Rybakina herself – year-end number one status stays in the tour's history for good.
Background: Rybakina was born in Moscow and played for Russia until 2018; the Kazakh federation offered her funding in exchange for playing for Kazakhstan. In 2022 she won Wimbledon – Kazakhstan's first Grand Slam singles title. In October she won the tournament in Ningbo for the second year running.
