What Aryna Sabalenka needs to do in Madrid to stay at No 2 in the WTA Rankings
Aryna-Sabalenka-Madrid
The rankings battle between Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff was a huge pre-tournament talking point at the Madrid Open.
With being ranked as world No 2 crucial for French Open seeding, all eyes were on whether Sabalenka could hold off Gauff and maintain her ranking.
Gauff has made some ground in terms of points but after her loss to Madison Keys, she will have to watch on to see how things pan out.
Sabalenka still, however, has work to do to stay as the world No 2.
As it stands
It is advantage Gauff currently, though the American’s loss on Monday means that Sabalenka’s fate is now in her own hands.
With her run to the fourth round in Madrid, Gauff has gained 55 ranking points and will sit on 7,313 points next week.
Sabalenka holds 7,848 points in the official WTA Rankings but has only defended 390 of her 1,000 Madrid points so far.
That means the two-time Australian Open champion has 7,238 points in the live rankings, just shy of Gauff’s confirmed total.
Read More: Coco Gauff unofficially the new No 2 in the WTA Rankings – what she needs to do to stay ahead of Aryna Sabalenka
What Sabalenka needs
Now that Gauff is out, it is quite a simple equation for Sabalenka.
If the Belarusian reaches the final, she will have secured enough ranking points to stay as the world No 2 – no matter whether she wins or loses.
Victory would see her stay on 7,848 ranking points, while she will hold 7.466 points if she loses in the final.
An emphatic victory over Mirra Andreeva has put her one step closer to doing that, but a huge test now awaits in the form of fourth seed Elena Rybakina.
Rybakina, who saved match points against Yulia Putintseva on Wednesday, trails Sabalenka 3-5 in their head-to-head – but has won three of their last four contests.
Victory for the Kazakh in their semi-final would officially knock Sabalenka down to world No 3 – but it could then get worse.
Should Rybakina then go on to win the title, she would also leapfrog Sabalenka, moving back to her career-high of third and knocking Sabalenka to fourth.
Effectively, Sabalenka needs just one more win to secure her place as the second-best player in the world.
If she cannot do that, she is guaranteed to slip behind Gauff – and potentially Rybakina as well.