Aryna Sabalenka returned to her career-high ranking of World No. 2 in the latest WTA Rankings released on Monday after winning the Australian Open.
The Belarusian clinched her maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 over reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the final.
Rybakina, the 23-year-old Kazakh, who beat three Grand Slam champions on her way to the way, jumped 15 places to make her top 10 debut. Rybakina’s ranking could have been even higher as she did not get any points for winning Wimbledon last year. All England Club’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine forced the ATP and WTA to strip the grass Major off ranking points.
Despite her fourth-round exit, Poland’s Iga Swiatek is comfortably the World No. 1 and more than 4000 ranking points ahead of Sabalenka.
Last year’s runner-up - USA’s Danielle Collins - dropped 29 places with her third-round exit. The American is now World No. 40.
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, 2017 French Open champion, jumped five places to 12th with her run to the quarterfinals in Melbourne.
Losing semifinalist - Victoria Azarenka and Magda Linette - also made significant gains from their performances. Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion and a former World No. 1, moved up eight places to 16th. Poland’s Linette, who reached the last-four stage of a Major for the first time, reached a career-high ranking of 22 after jumping 23 spots.
Other players who improved their rankings after the first Major of the year include Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova (moved up 11 places to 20th) and Linda Fruhvirtova (rose 31 places to 51st), Croatia’s Donna Vekic (climbed up 31 places to 33rd) and USA’s Katie Volynets (rose 17 places to 96th).
| RANK | PLAYER | RANKING POINTS |
| 1 | Iga Swiatek (POL) | 10485 |
| 2 | Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) | 6100 |
| 3 | Ons Jabeur (TUN) | 5210 |
| 4 | Jessica Pegula (USA) | 5000 |
| 5 | Caroline Garcia (FRA) | 4645 |
| 6 | Coco Gauff (USA) | 3992 |
| 7 | Maria Sakkari (GRE) | 3811 |
| 8 | Daria Kasatkina (RUS) | 3380 |
| 9 | Belinda Bencic (SUI) | 2905 |
| 10 | Elena Rybakina (KAZ) | 2815 |
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