In a year of surprise defeats, Iga Swiatek was handed her worst yet.<\/p>\n
The Pole looked erratic and out of ideas in a stunning 6-1, 6-1 loss to Coco Gauff<\/a> at the Madrid Open on Thursday, her title defence coming to a screeching halt inside the Caja Magica.<\/p>\n It is the second-worst loss Swiatek<\/a> has ever faced in WTA Tour-level clay-court match, with her 6-1, 6-0 loss to Simona Halep at the 2019 French Open \u2013 when she was just 18 \u2013 her only heavier defeat on the dirt.<\/p>\n The manner of the defeat, a third straight to Gauff after previously leading their head-to-head 11-1, brings about plenty of problems for the five-time Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n And, perhaps most significant of all, it could prove to have an unfortunate impact on her WTA ranking.<\/p>\n Swiatek defeated Aryna Sabalenka in an extraordinary final to lift her first Madrid Open title twelve months ago, meaning she was under notable pressure as the reigning champion in 2025.<\/p>\n The Pole earned 1,000 ranking points for her triumph in 2024, and came into this year\u2019s event with a total of 7,383 points.<\/p>\n Her semi-final run in 2025 has earned her 390 points, though that means 610 points will drop from her ranking when the WTA Rankings update next Monday (May 5th).<\/p>\n Swiatek will hold 6,773 ranking points when the rankings update \u2013 and may no longer even be the world No 2.<\/p>\n Coco Gauff hits stunning milestones as she thrashes Iga Swiatek in Madrid Open shocker<\/a><\/p>\n WATCH: Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s rival says she \u2018is never winning a sportsman award\u2019\u00a0after Madrid Open controversy<\/a><\/p>\n When it comes to Swiatek potentially losing her world No 2 ranking, the mathematics are quite simple.<\/p>\n While the Pole will fall to 6,773 points in the WTA Rankings, Gauff has provisionally moved up to 6,603 points after her emphatic semi-final triumph.<\/p>\n That is a current increase of 530 points on the US star\u2019s pre-tournament total of 6,073 points, after eclipsing her fourth-round exit from 2024.<\/p>\n The world No 4 heading into the tournament, Gauff is already guaranteed to move back above current world No 3 Jessica Pegula next Monday, reclaiming her US No 1 ranking.<\/p>\n However, the 21-year-old would also leapfrog above Swiatek and move back to her career-high of world No 2 if she wins Saturday\u2019s final at the WTA 1000 final.<\/p>\n Victory over one of world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka or world No 17 Elina Svitolina would see Gauff hold 6,953 ranking points next week, putting her 180 points ahead of the Pole.<\/p>\n Swiatek has not been ranked outside the top two since March 21, 2022, spending 125 weeks of that period as the world No 1.<\/p>\n Even if Gauff is unable to win the final and replace Swiatek as the world No 2, the Pole\u2019s ranking is still under threat over the next month and a half.<\/p>\n The world No 2 is defending 1,000 points as the Italian Open champion, and 2,000 points as the reigning French Open champion.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0Meet the lucky loser enjoying an incredible run of fortune at the Madrid Open<\/a><\/p>\n The post Iga Swiatek set for huge WTA Rankings blow after shocking Madrid Open exit<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a year of surprise defeats, Iga Swiatek was handed her worst yet. The Pole looked erratic and out of ideas in a stunning 6-1, 6-1 loss to Coco Gauff at the Madrid Open on Thursday, her title defence coming to a screeching halt inside the Caja Magica. It is the second-worst loss Swiatek has […]<\/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-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","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=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How many ranking points will Swiatek lose?<\/h4>\n
Madrid Open News<\/h2>\n
How could Swiatek lose her world No 2 ranking?<\/h4>\n