WTA Rankings: Swiatek holds firm at the top as Pegula and Gauff make Top 4 debuts

Jessica Pegula reaches No 3 for the first time in her career while doubles partner Coco Gauff climbs to a new career-high of No 4

Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula at the 2022 National Bank Open in Toronto Image Credit: Zuma / Panoramic

Haresh Ramchandani

October 24, 2022

Poland’s Iga Swiatek held firm to the No 1 spot on the WTA Tour, beginning her 30th week at the top of the world rankings. The 21-year-old has a lead of 5,780 points over her closest challenger – Ons Jabeur, of Tunisia, who sits at No 2.

Weeks after making her top 5 debut, American Jessica Pegula climbs two spots to a new career-high of No 3 after winning her biggest career singles title at the Guadalajara Open. The 28-year-old is only 239 points behind Jabeur setting up an exciting race for the year-end No 2 ranking at the WTA Finals next week.

Another American, 18-year-old American Coco Gauff, climbs three spots to make her top 5 debut at No 4 – her new career-high ranking. Besides making the cut in singles, Gauff and Pegula have also qualified as a team for the WTA Finals doubles event.

Greece’s Maria Sakkari, the runner-up in Guadalajara, climbs one spot to No 5 while Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia jumps four spots to No 6. Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka drops three places to No 7 while Russia’s Daria Kasatkina is up three to reach a new career-high of No 8.

The top 8 players in the world will head to Fort Worth for the season-ending WTA Finals. Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova is up three spots to a new career-high of No 9 and will head to Texas as the alternate for the WTA Finals. Former world No 1 Simona Halep, currently facing a provisional suspension for a doping violation which she has vehemently denied, drops one place to No. 10.

Badosa, Kontvaiet and Muguruza slide down the WTA Rankings

With points from the 2021 WTA Finals dropping off, there are also some big slides down the rankings. Spain’s Paula Badosa, who peaked at No 2 in the rankings in April, drops four spots to no 12 as she loses points from her semi-finals finish at the WTA Finals last year.

Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit, the runner-up at the WTA Finals last year, drops 14 positions to No 17 while the champion last year, Garbine Muguruza, who began the season as world No 3, slides down 44 spots to No 57.

All three of the players failed to make it to the WTA Finals in 2022.