Aryna Sabalenka maintained her healthy lead in the WTA Rankings Race To Riyadh with newly crowned French Open champion Coco Gauff the big winner as she surged up the standings.
Reigning world No 1 Sabalenka had a 1,771-point advantage over Madison Keys ahead of Roland Garros and her run to the final has helped her to extend her lead at the top to 1,822.
The three-time Grand Slam winner sits on 6,420 points and is edging closer to becoming the first player to officially qualify for Riyadh with the cutoff at 7,648.
But there is a new name at No 2 as Gauff has replaced her fellow American on the back of her title run in Paris as she climbed up three places after picking up 2,000 points for her efforts.
She now has a small cushion of 818 points over Keys, which is quite impressive as she was down in 11th place before the start of the clay-court season with 1,190 points.
But her runner-up finishes at the Madrid Open and Italian Open, and now Roland Garros title have given her a big boost.
Five-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek sits at No 5 and looks set to qualify again despite her struggles so far this year while Mirra Andreeva completes the top five, but she is down two places after her early exit from the French Open.
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Jessica Pegula and Jasmine Paolini occupy the final two places in the Rankings Race To Riyadh as the eighth spot is reserved for a current-year Grand Slam winner who sits between eighth and 20th in the official WTA Rankings at the time of the cutoff.
Barbora Krejcikova qualified via that rule in 2024 as she won Wimbledon, but finished outside the top 10.
Should the four Grand Slam winners be among the top seven then the final place will go to the person ranked eighth while two spots are available for alternates.
Keys and Gauff are this year’s two major champions with the former winning the Australian Open.
There are still a lot of points up for grabs during the remainder of the campaign, though with two Grand Slams – Wimbledon and the US Open – and four WTA 1000 tournaments still remaining on the calendar.
The eight players who qualify for Riyadh will compete for the biggest cheque in women’s tennis in with Gauff the defending champion after she beat Zheng Qinwen in the 2024 final and earned $4,805,000.
Top 12 In WTA Rankings Race
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 6,420
2. Coco Gauff – 4,598 (+3)
3. Madison Keys – 3,780 (-1)
4. Iga Swiatek – 3,658
5. Mirra Andreeva – 3,485 (-2)
6. Jessica Pegula – 2,789
7. Jasmine Paolini – 2,470
8. Elena Rybakina – 2,191
9. Elina Svitolina – 2,181
10. Ekaterina Alexandrova – 1,742 (+1)
12. Amanda Anisimova – 1,721 (+1)
12. Emma Navarro – 1,661 (-2)
The post 2025 WTA Rankings Race To Riyadh: Aryna Sabalenka leads, Coco Gauff +3 appeared first on Tennis365.
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