{"id":536653,"date":"2026-03-14T21:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536653\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T21:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:23:09","slug":"rybakina-eyes-no-1-after-rising-to-career-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536653\/","title":{"rendered":"Rybakina eyes No. 1 after rising to career-high"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elena Rybakina used Sunday\u2019s Indian Wells final as a springboard for an even loftier ambition \u2013 dethroning Aryna Sabalenka as world No. 1.<\/p>\n

The Kazakh star, who climbed to a career-high No. 2 in the WTA rankings following her run at the BNP Paribas Open, made clear after the final that the summit of women\u2019s tennis is now firmly in her crosshairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to get even higher in the ranking, to get this position as No. 1,\u201d Rybakina said in her post-match press conference. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely my biggest goal, my next goal. I will try to do it this year, and hopefully it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

few points to defend<\/p>\n

The path, however, remains steep. Sabalenka has held the No. 1 ranking for more than 80 consecutive weeks, one of the most dominant stretches in recent women\u2019s tennis history, and currently sits roughly 3,000 points clear of her nearest challenger.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo stay so long as No. 1, you need to be very consistent,\u201d Rybakina acknowledged. \u201cShe showed great tennis for the past couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Yet the window over the coming months may be narrower than it appears for the Belarusian world No. 1. Sabalenka faces a crushing 4,035 points to defend in just the next three months \u2013 a figure that reflects her extraordinary run of results through the spring of 2025 \u00a0\u2013 out of a total of 10,675 points currently on her ranking tally.<\/p>\n


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Rybakina, by contrast, carries just 998 points to defend through Roland-Garros, with the largest single chunk being the 500 points from her 2025 Strasbourg title. That asymmetry in defensive obligations gives the 26-year-old a genuine, if still demanding, opportunity to close the gap significantly before the clay season concludes in Paris.<\/p>\n

Unstoppable since end of 2025<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s final at Indian Wells will add a new chapter to a career that has accelerated sharply over the past months. Her 2025 season underscored just how dangerous she has become across all surfaces. She capped the year by winning the WTA Finals in Riyadh (against Sabalenka), going a perfect 5-0 and defeating Sabalenka in the final to collect $5.235 million \u2013 the largest prize money payout in the history of women\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n

She also added titles in Strasbourg and Ningbo and led the Tour in total aces with 516, a number that speaks to the raw power that makes her so difficult to contain.<\/p>\n

Reaching No. 2 for the first time gives her a formal foothold in the conversation at the very top of the sport. Whether she can convert that into gold remains the question that will define her spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all depends on the other players too,\u201d she said. \u201cBut yeah, I will try.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina used Sunday\u2019s Indian Wells final as a springboard for an even loftier ambition \u2013 dethroning Aryna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-536653","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\/536653","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=536653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}