Aryna Sabalenka will be a woman under pressure at the 2026 US Open as she has a lot of points to defend, while there is better news for Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Alex Eala.
World No 1 Sabalenka won her fourth Grand Slam when she defeated Amanda Anisimova in the final at Flushing Meadows in 2025, but now, 12 months later, she will drop the points she won or face the possibility of losing top spot in the WTA Rankings.
The rankings are determined by a rolling 52-week, cumulative system and players drop points from the corresponding period 12 months ago at the start of the event and can then earn points again for their round-by-round progression at the current tournament.
Example: If a player earned 200 points in 2025, those points will be removed from their tally in the Live WTA Rankings at the start of the event.
If said player then loses early and earns only 100 points this time around, they go home with a deficit of -100.
Points The Big Names Will Drop At US Open
Aryna Sabalenka – 2,000
A Grand Slam win is worth 2,000 points and Sabalenka earned the full quota when she defeated Anisimova 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the 2025 final to win her second US Open crown.
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Aryna Sabalenka v Elena Rybakina v Jessica Pegula v Coco Gauff: Battle for No 1 spot in WTA Rankings
The four-time major champion has 8,575 points in the official WTA Rankings, but will effectively be on 6,575 once those 2,000 points are removed, slipping to No 2 in the Live Rankings with Elena Rybakina moving ahead of her.
She can only regain the No 1 spot in the rankings after the US Open by winning the title, but even then it is out of her hands (see below for Rybakina).
Amanda Anisimova – 1,300
The American followed up her Wimbledon runners-up finish with another finalist appearance at the US Open, earning 1,300 points, and she will struggle to remain in the top 10 after the season-ending Grand Slam.
Anisimova has already slipped to No 10 in the rankings as she is on 4,533 points and will drop out of the top 10 once those points are removed.
Jessica Pegula and Naomi Osaka – 780
The duo are under pressure as they reached the semi-final last year, but there is a nice carrot dangling in front of world No 3 Pegula as she has the chance to become world No 1 by winning the title. However, she needs a few results to go her way.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka sits at No 13 and she will likely only move up by reaching the final at Flushing Meadows for a third time.
Iga Swiatek/Marketa Vondrousova/Barbora Krejcikova/Karolina Muchova – 430
A trio of Czechs and Swiatek exited in the quarter-final stage 12 months ago.
Swiatek has slipped to No 8 in the rankings, but will move up if she reaches the last four or better, while Muchova sits at No 7 following her Wimbledon runners-up finish.
Krejcikova is down at No 28 and Vondrousova is currently banned.
Elena Rybakina/Coco Gauff/Marta Kostyuk – 240
Rybakina, who lost in the fourth round last year, has top spot in the rankings in her own hands as a semi-final appearance will see her move ahead of Sabalenka and become world No 1 for the first time. She can also become No 1 if she loses earlier and others also fall by the wayside.
Gauff is also in the conversation to become No 1, but she needs to win the title and hope Rybakina loses before the semi-final while world No 11 Kostyuk is poised to crack the top 10 for the first time.
Iva Jovic – 570
Even though Jovic lost in the second round last year, she will drop 570 points as players are also defending points from the 2025 Guadalajara and SP Open events.
The American won the Guadalajara Open and earned 500 points.
Alex Eala – 135
World No 17 Eala won her maiden Grand Slam match at the US Open in 2025 before losing in the second round to leave New York with 70 points. But she then signed up for the SP Open and reached the quarter-final (125).
However, it gets a little more complicated as some of her points (60) from Brazil is considered non-countable so she will technically only drop 65 points from that WTA 250 event.
The Filipina has 2,281 points, and once the 135 points are removed, she sits on 2,166 with an opportunity to move into the top 15 waving at her.
Emma Raducanu – 130
The 2021 US Open winner won’t play in New York this year, but she will drop 130 points after reaching the third round last year.
Raducanu currently sits at No 68 in the rankings and will slip further down the list after the season-ending Grand Slam.
The post US Open: Points Sabalenka, Rybakina, Gauff, Swiatek, Anisimova, Osaka, Eala will drop appeared first on Tennis365.
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