Elena Rybakina has upped her consistency and is ready to challenge Aryna Sabalenka for the world No 1 ranking, according to Andy Roddick.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka, who has been top of the WTA Rankings<\/a> since October 2024, has a very handy 2,395-point lead over Rybakina ahead of this week\u2019s Madrid Open, but there is no doubt that the gap between the two has decreased significantly in the past few months.<\/p>\n The four-time Grand Slam winner started the year with a 4-640-point advantage over the Kazakh player, who was down in fifth place ahead of the season-opening Grand Slam, but Rybakina\u2019s Australian Open title run coupled with a runners-up finish at the Indian Wells Open and another title at last week\u2019s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix<\/a> has seen her edge closer.<\/p>\n During the same period, Sabalenka won the Sunshine Double<\/a> at the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open and also finished runner-up to Rybakina in Melbourne.<\/p>\n In the latest Served with Andy Roddick podcast,<\/a> former world No 1 Roddick discussed the battle between the two.<\/p>\n \u201cRybakina wins a 500 in Stuttgart, she\u2019s in this No 1 conversation for the year, folks. I\u2019m just telling you like she is firmly not having a lot of off weeks,\u201d the American said.<\/p>\n 2026 WTA Prize Money Leaders: Rybakina edges Sabalenka, Mboko features, Swiatek down in ninth<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n WTA Rankings Race To Riyadh: Elena Rybakina overtakes Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek & Mirra Andreeva climb<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The 2003 US Open champion added: \u201cThis consistency over a four or five-month period is not something we\u2019ve seen from Rybakina before. We know what the top shelf looks like,I think anyone with eyeballs can watch her and say, \u2018Oh, her top level is as good as anyone\u2019s\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the difference being she doesn\u2019t do it every time out, you know, over the course of a year, six months, whatever it may be. This feels different from what it\u2019s been before with her as far as I can tell.<\/p>\n \u201cI think she is firmly in this conversation [for being the No 1 player in the world]. If she\u2019s winning on clay consistently, we know she can win on grass, she\u2019s won Wimbledon,<\/p>\n \u201cWe know maybe not her best results in in New York in the past, but I know this is going to be fun. You you want someone to come for the throne, obviously Aryna is wearing it [the crown] very comfortably right now, but this is fun. The more in the mix, the merrier.<\/p>\n And Rybakina will get another chance to get even closer to Sabalenka at this week\u2019s Madrid Open as the Belarusian is the defending champion so dropped 1,000 points at the start of the event while the Kazakh player won\u2019t drop any points.<\/p>\n A title run for Rybakina, coupled with an early exit from Sabalenka, could result in the difference between the two being under 1,000 points when they head to Rome for the Italian Open.<\/p>\n The post Andy Roddick says Elena Rybakina is \u2018coming for Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s No 1 \u2018throne\u2019 in WTA Rankings<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elena Rybakina has upped her consistency and is ready to challenge Aryna Sabalenka for the world No 1 ranking, according to Andy Roddick. Sabalenka, who has been top of the WTA Rankings since October 2024, has a very handy 2,395-point lead over Rybakina ahead of this week\u2019s Madrid Open, but there is no doubt that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WTA News<\/h2>\n