The 2026 season is just days away (at last!), and we have questions.

Lots of them.

As the offseason wraps up and the Australian swing gets underway, resident experts Greg Garber and Brad Kallet are tackling some of the burning questions on the WTA Tour ahead of the 2026 season.

First up are the most intriguing storylines within the Top 10. (Later in the week we’ll answer burning questions outside the Top 10.)

We won’t know these answers for some time — that’s the fun of it, isn’t it? — but here are our best predictions and most informed insights about the very upper tier of the tour, and what to keep an eye on in the coming months.

Happy tennis!

Will Aryna Sabalenka finish World No. 1 for the third straight season?

Greg Garber: Yes. When the new year dawns, Brad, Sabalenka will have been in the top spot for 63 straight weeks and 71 overall. No. 2 Iga Swiatek, who is roughly 1,500 points behind, has spent an impressive total of 125 weeks at No. 1, but I’m thinking in a year’s time Sabalenka will be closing in on that 125-week mark — which ranks No. 7 on the all-time list.

The four Grand Slams, with their 2,000-point bounty for champions, are the best way to pile up rankings points, and in recent years no one has played them better than Sabalenka. By reaching three finals in 2025 (and winning the US Open), Sabalenka came away with 5,380 ranking points in the four majors, nearly half her total for the year. Sabalenka has won three of the past seven Slams she’s played, and in her past dozen she’s won four (and reached three finals and four semifinals). Her worst major result? The quarterfinals at 2024 Roland Garros. 

I think you might agree that a repeat of this kind of elite consistency will carry her again in 2026.

Brad Kallet: I do agree, Greg. How can you doubt her, or bet against her, after these past two years? You simply can’t. She’s been remarkable at the majors, yes, but also remarkable week in and week out at every tournament she’s entered in, no matter the surface or the country or the time zone. 

Of the 16 tournaments she played in 2025, she made it to the semifinals 12 times and the final nine times. She lost an opening round once, and lost two matches in a row once (!), way back in late January/early February. She hardly loses, and hardly loses early, and those consistent deep runs will result in another No. 1 finish.

Which Top 10 player has the best chance to win her first Grand Slam?

Greg Garber: Amanda Anisimova. To begin with, as you know, Brad, there aren’t a ton of candidates for this one. Half of the Top 10 players already have at least one major victory. Anisimova, at 24 years old, is the only one of the remaining handful to be in what should be her peak years as a player.

Jessica Pegula and Ekaterina Alexandrova continue to produce terrific results, but both are 31, while Jasmine Paolini is 29. Mirra Andreeva, who I’d place next for this question, is still only 18. Anisimova made back-to-back Grand Slam finals in 2025, and at the US Open showed that breakthrough potential when she beat Swiatek and Naomi Osaka in back-to-back matches before pushing Sabalenka in the final.

Brad Kallet: Agree. It has to be Anisimova, who Sabalenka agrees will win a major. (She said so after beating the American in the US Open final, and who are we to question the World No. 1?)

Anisimova obviously took a major career leap reaching the Wimbledon final, and though the loss could have been a setback, it was anything but that. The 24-year-old reached another Slam final two months later, avenging the defeat to Swiatek and pushing Sabalenka in the final. It was proof and affirmation that she’s a major contender. Assuming she stays healthy, it’s a matter of when.

Will Coco Gauff or Amanda Anisimova (or someone else) finish the season as the No. 1 American?

Greg Garber: I’m going with Gauff. With all due respect to Anisimova — her rise in 2025 was as inspiring as it was surprising — I like the consistency we’ve seen in Gauff’s rankings throughout her career. She first cracked the year-end Top 10 in 2022, rising to No. 7 at the age of 18. The past three years she’s been super steady at No. 3, behind Sabalenka and Swiatek.

Despite all the attention on her service game and forehand, Gauff won her second career Grand Slam this past spring at Roland Garros — at the age of 21. She might be the best mover on tour and, as her 9-0 record in hard-court finals suggests, is one of the best competitors. She’s been near the top of tennis for so long that it’s easy to take her success for granted, but I think this is the year she takes her game to an even higher level.

Coco Gauff in 2025: A 45-minute showcase of her finest tennis

Brad Kallet: I’m going to take Anisimova here, because I’m expecting her to win her first career major in 2026. But you’re right, Greg, Gauff is as consistent as they come, and she’s only getting stronger. I expect it to be neck and neck all year, and it will likely be decided late in the season. As it currently stands, only 476 rankings points separates them.

It will be difficult for Anisimova to make ground in the latter half of the year, as she’ll be defending the points of two Slam finals (and a 1000 title in Beijing), but the first half presents plenty of opportunities.

Coming off her strong finish in 2025, will Elena Rybakina win a Grand Slam in 2026?

Greg Garber: I think so. This is a terrific 50-50 question, because in my mind if Rybakina can elevate her game, it could shake up the order of things. When she’s dialed in and healthy, her power game can be overwhelming. Health, in recent years, has been the pressing issue. But in 2025, it was Rybakina who seemed energized down the stretch of the season, qualifying late in the game and finishing in a blur as the champion at the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

In that year-end tournament, Rybakina went 5-0 against Top 10 players, beating Swiatek and Anisimova in the group stage and Sabalenka in the final. There’s only so many majors to go around, so give one or two to Sabalenka and Swiatek and maybe one or two for the rest of the field. Rybakina — whose head-to-head is a respectable 6-8 and 5-6 against Sabalenka and Swiatek, respectively — will snag one of them, probably at Wimbledon.

Champions Reel: How Elena Rybakina won the WTA Finals Riyadh 2025

Brad Kallet: This one is very much a toss-up. What’s fresh in my memory (and everyone else’s) is Rybakina’s dominance down the stretch, when she desperately needed to win every time she took the court to qualify for the WTA Finals, and then won it. If she gets on another roll, she can win a second major. And with that serve … anything is possible.

But I’m inclined to think she’s still the odd player out, after Sabalenka, Swiatek, Gauff and Anisimova. Rybakina didn’t get past the fourth round at a Slam last year, though I agree her best shot is at Wimbledon, where she won in 2022 and reached the semis in 2024.

Will Mirra Andreeva revert back to last season’s first-half brilliance?

Greg Garber: Absolutely, yes. Andreeva was only 17 years old when she won the WTA 1000 in Dubai last February. That made her the youngest-ever champion in the 16 years that the tour has been staging WTA 1000s. And then at the next one, Indian Wells, she became the second-youngest to do it. Andreeva, with an astonishingly complete game for a teenager, beat Sabalenka in the Indian Wells final in three sets. It marked her 12th straight win in WTA 1000s, a number that grew to 13 before she lost to Anisimova in the second round in Miami.

Prior to that match, Andreeva was 20-3 for the year. From there she posted a more pedestrian (and understandable) 20-13 record. I think Andreeva simply hit a wall after that quick start. With another year of experience and the guiding wisdom of coach Conchita Martinez, I think Andreeva comes back strong — she actually seems to still be growing. To that end, perhaps playing fewer doubles matches is something worth considering.

Relive the moment: Andreeva stuns Sabalenka to win Indian Wells

Brad Kallet: I don’t want to be accused of copping out of this question, but I’m going to say somewhere in the middle. I don’t anticipate the 18-year-old playing as well as she did in the first half of last year, because that’s impossibly difficult. (It’s even harder to believe, a year removed.) But she’ll balance it out by playing more consistently throughout the year and finishing strong, with perhaps a title or two in the back half. She’s a year wiser, and will be able to handle the grind even better.

A return to the Top 5 is possible, but she will no doubt hang in the Top 10 for the foreseeable future.Â