A gap has emerged at the top of the WTA Tour in recent weeks, with Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Coco Gauff seemingly separating themselves from the rest of the field.<\/p>\n
All three are reigning Grand Slam champions, with Sabalenka<\/a> looking to defend her US Open title this week after Gauff\u2019s<\/a> French Open and Swiatek\u2019s<\/a> Wimbledon triumphs earlier in the year.<\/p>\n After not winning a Grand Slam earlier this season, coupled with a quarter-final exit during her Cincinnati Open title defence two weeks ago<\/a>, the Belarusian\u2019s world No 1 ranking was up for grabs in New York.<\/p>\n Swiatek, who has previously held the world No 1 ranking for 125 weeks, and Gauff, looking to reign atop the rankings for the first time, were the two women looking to hunt Sabalenka down.<\/p>\n However, with week one of the US Open done and dusted, Sabalenka now has the chance to end the world No 1 battle in New York \u2014 and focus solely on her trying to win a fourth Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n In the WTA Rankings, Sabalenka has a comfortable lead over her two leading rivals.<\/p>\n The 27-year-old holds 11,225 points, with world No 2 Swiatek on 7,933 points and No 3 Gauff on 7,874 points.<\/p>\n However, if you remove last year\u2019s US Open points, the opportunity for Swiatek and Gauff in New York was evident.<\/p>\n With only 10 points available in the opening round, Sabalenka dropped down to 9,235 points in the WTA Live Rankings.<\/p>\n Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka preview their blockbuster US Open clash<\/a><\/p>\n How Iga Swiatek\u2019s psychologist responded after expert claimed their relationship \u2018crosses boundaries\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n In contrast, with just 430 quarter-final points to defend, Swiatek only fell back to 7,513 points, while Gauff, who only had 240 points to defend, dropped back to 7,644.<\/p>\n That put Gauff back above Swiatek in the WTA Live Rankings ahead of the tournament, though it put both women within striking distance of Sabalenka.<\/p>\n With 2,000 ranking points available for the eventual champion in New York, the American and the Pole can both return to world No 1 if either won the title, and Sabalenka fell early.<\/p>\n However, ahead of week two, Sabalenka is close to ending her rival\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n Away from Swiatek and Gauff, who sit in the bottom half of the draw, top seed Sabalenka has safely navigated her way into round four.<\/p>\n So far, the world No 1 is yet to drop a set in New York, with victories over Rebeka Masarova, Polina Kudermetova, and 31st seed Leylah Fernandez keeping her campaign alive.<\/p>\n Sabalenka has earned 240 ranking points for reaching the fourth round, and holds 9,465 points in the WTA Live Rankings \u2014 still down 1,740 from her official total.<\/p>\n Swiatek would hold 9,503 points with a run to the title, while Gauff would hold 9,634 points with victory in New York, putting them ahead of Sabalenka\u2019s current total.<\/p>\n However, victory in the fourth round will be enough for Sabalenka to remain as the world No 1, regardless of how the rest of the event fares for all three women.<\/p>\n Should Sabalenka prevail in her fourth-round match on Sunday, she would move to 9,655 points in the WTA Live Rankings, ahead of both Swiatek and Gauff\u2019s maximum tallies for the event.<\/p>\n And, the Belarusian has been handed a favourable match-up.<\/p>\n Sabalenka is set to face Cristina Bucsa inside Court Louis Armstrong on Sunday, in a first career meeting between the two.<\/p>\n Ninety-four places separate the world No 1 and world No 95 Bucsa in the WTA Rankings, with the Spaniard into the fourth round of a Grand Slam singles draw for the first time.<\/p>\n Sabalenka enters this match as a sizeable favourite and, while her tournament will be far from done with victory, she can ease some of the pressure on her.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: What prize money & ranking points has Taylor Townsend won during epic US Open run?<\/a><\/p>\n The post WTA Rankings battle for No 1: How Aryna Sabalenka can dash Coco Gauff & Iga Swiatek\u2019s hopes<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A gap has emerged at the top of the WTA Tour in recent weeks, with Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Coco Gauff seemingly separating themselves from the rest of the field. All three are reigning Grand Slam champions, with Sabalenka looking to defend her US Open title this week after Gauff\u2019s French Open and Swiatek\u2019s […]<\/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-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957","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=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}As it stands<\/h2>\n
US Open News<\/h2>\n
What does she need to do?<\/h2>\n