{"id":449857,"date":"2026-02-02T21:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/449857\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T21:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:23:18","slug":"moms-belinda-bencic-and-elina-svitolina-make-wta-rankings-history-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/449857\/","title":{"rendered":"Moms Belinda Bencic and Elina Svitolina Make WTA Rankings History \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, February 2, 2026<br \/>Photo credit: Jon Buckle\/ROLEX<\/p>\n<p>Mother\u2019s Day arrived early on the WTA Tour\u2014and women\u2019s tennis is celebrating.<\/p>\n<p>Belinda\u00a0Bencic and Elina Svitolina have today made history by marking the first time two mothers are ranked inside the Top 10, the WTA Tour announced today.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\" alt=\"tennis express pro player gear\" class=\"wp-image-54451\"  data-\/>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\n<p>Switzerland\u2019s Bencic, the United Cup MVP last month, returned to the elite ranking bracket in mid-January for the first time since stepping away from the court in September 2023 to give birth to daughter Bella.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing back to the WTA Top 10 one year after returning to competition after maternity leave is something I am incredibly proud of,\u201d Bencic said. \u201cVery few people know or have experienced how difficult that journey is, but my family, my team and I have put all of our energy, work and dedication into it to accomplish this goal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey deserve as much credit as anyone, and I am incredibly grateful for their support along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bencic-Svitolina.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61028\"  data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Elina Svitolina, who crushed Coco Gauff in a 59-minute thrashing to reach the Australian Open semifinals, joins Bencic in the Top 10.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian Svitolina, mom to daughter Skai, made the incredible AO semifinal run to create this landmark moment which sees two mothers simultaneously ranked inside the Top 10 for the first time in WTA history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a dream to return to the WTA Top 10 and doing it as a mother means so much to me,\u201d Svitolina said. \u201cI\u2019m proud of my fight and resilience and I can\u2019t thank the fans enough for their incredible support.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The WTA announced \u201cto foster a sporting environment where motherhood and elite performance are not seen as competing choices, the WTA has introduced several\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wta.acemlnb.com\/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDEJXaf58J7ydM4UhOe3HJWutD2jMw3XHjIVnme6pV9-ky7xeFv1XQkiEA0_ueglPLJJneb95JAytuYUfFs13QjitP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">first-of-its-kind maternity initiatives<\/a>\u00a0in recent seasons, with both Bencic and Svitolina taking advantage of the Special Ranking Rule for returning mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, February 2, 2026Photo credit: Jon Buckle\/ROLEX Mother\u2019s Day arrived early on the WTA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-449857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}