Aryna Sabalenka holds a sizeable lead over her rivals in the WTA Rankings, but an alternative rankings list suggests her advantage is far narrower.
Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula are both above Iga Swiatek, who has slipped down the list, while Coco Gauff is well below her WTA ranking position.
With the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells underway, we look at how the UTR rating systems ranks the top players in women’s tennis.
What is the UTR ranking system?
While the WTA Rankings count points earned in the last 52 weeks, Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) is based on an algorithm that places more weight on recent results and wins against higher-ranked players.
The UTR Rating system is open to players at all levels of tennis, and all players — regardless of age, gender, geography, or skill level — are rated on the same scale between 1.00 and 16.50 based on match results.
Only matches within the last 12 months are counted towards the rating, and the algorithm uses the last 30 matches a player competes in (or fewer if they played fewer than 30 in the last 12 months).
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The women’s UTR ratings
Sabalenka has not played since her defeat to Rybakina in the Australian Open final at the end of January, while she won the Brisbane International in her only other event in 2026. The world No 1 has 10,675 points in the WTA Rankings, which gives her a 3,087-point advantage over second-ranked Swiatek.
The Belarusian also tops the UTR ratings with a score of 13.26, but her closest challenger on this list is Rybakina.
Rybakina, who secured the first Grand Slam title of the year in Australia, is just behind Sabalenka with a 13.21 UTR rating.
Pegula has climbed to third on the UTR list — two places above her WTA ranking — after her victory at the WTA 1000 event in Dubai last month took her UTR rating to 12.99. The American was also a semi-finalist at the 2026 Australian Open.
Swiatek, who exited both the Australian Open and the Dubai Championships in the quarter-finals, has a 12.97 rating, and she has fallen to the No 4 spot.
Amanda Anisimova, who is ranked sixth on the women’s tour, is fifth on the UTR list with a rating of 12.91.
World No 4 Gauff is ranked eighth by UTR with a rating of 12.83, which puts her below Elina Svitolina and Karolina Muchova.
UTR Ratings Women’s Top 20
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 13.26 (WTA Ranking – 1)
2. Elena Rybakina – 13.21 (WTA Ranking – 3)
3. Jessica Pegula – 12.99 (WTA Ranking – 5)
4. Iga Swiatek – 12.97 (WTA Ranking – 2)
5. Amanda Anisimova – 12.91 (WTA Ranking – 6)
6. Elina Svitolina – 12.90 (WTA Ranking – 9)
7. Karolina Muchova – 12.84 (WTA Ranking – 13)
8. Coco Gauff – 12.83 (WTA Ranking – 4)
9. Mirra Andreeva – 12.72 (WTA Ranking – 8)
10. Marketa Voundrousova – 12.72 (WTA Ranking – 46)
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