Belarusian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka has achieved a milestone, entering the 50th consecutive week as World No. 1 on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking list. Her first stint in the top spot came into effect from September 11th to November 5th, 2023, eight weeks in total. She narrowly missed out on the top spot as 2023 Year-End No. 1.
The three-time Grand Slam champion regained her top spot from Polish star Iga Swiatek on October 21, 2024, and the streak continues, marking her milestone today.
Sabalenka is now the 14th woman player to remain at No. 1 for 50 weeks on the WTA ranking since 1973 and the 10th woman in WTA history to achieve this feat. The Belarusian has also made it to the 200th career week in the WTA Top 5 ranking.
The thirteen names included in the list previously were Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Chris Evert, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Iga Swiatek, Ashleigh Barty, Justine Henin, Lindsay Davenport, Caroline Wozniacki, Simona Halep, and Victoria Azarenka.
Sabalenka and Swiatek battle for No. 1
There has been an ongoing debate among the tennis fans on who will be the Year-End No. 1 WTA top player of 2025.
As per the current WTA ranking, Sabalenka is currently at 11,225 points against No. 2 Swiatek with 8,433 points.
The Belarusian did not participate in the ongoing 2025 China Open tournament, while Swiatek will play in the Round of 16 on October 1, 2025.
With the upcoming Wuhan Open 2025, Sabalenka will have a chance to defend her spot with 1,000 ranking points.
On her Year-End No. 1 battle with Sabalenka, Swiatek said, “I already know that thinking about the rankings, it’s not a way to go, no matter if you’re No. 2 or no matter if you’re No. 1. It’s just kind of numbers. But it doesn’t change the fact that you need to kind of feel the tennis and focus on the improvement on the court, then the results are going to come after that. For sure it’s a different situation than last year when I wasn’t really able to defend my No. 1, like earn it.”
