The Dubai Tennis Championships suffered two big withdrawals with world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No 2 Iga Swiatek both pulling out on the eve of the WTA 1000 event.

Their withdrawal means Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina will be the top seed in the United Arab Emirates with Amanda Anisimova, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva completing the top five.

Swiatek’s decision not to compete didn’t come as a big surprise as she made it clear last year that she will drop some tournaments in order to reduce her schedule and keep herself fresh for the latter stages of the season.

But the move could result in her losing her No 2 spot in the WTA Rankings to Rybakina.

The Pole has been No 2 in the rankings since she lost top spot to Sabalenka in October 2024, but her quarter-final exits from the Australian Open and Qatar Open, coupled with Rybakina’s title run at Melbourne Park, mean they are separated by only a handful of points.

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There have been a couple of movements in the rankings following the Doha WTA 1000 event, with defending champion Anisimova slipping two spots after her early exits with Gauff and Jessica Pegula moving up one place each.

But the top three will remain the same with Rybakina just 280 points behind Swiatek while Gauff is a distant third.

Live Rankings

1. Aryna Sabalenka – 10,870
2. Iga Swiatek – 7,803
3. Elena Rybakina – 7,523
4. Coco Gauff – 6,423
5. Jessica Pegula – 5,888

With the WTA using a rolling 52-week, cumulative system for the rankings, all players will drop the points they earned at the Dubai Tennis Championships a year ago.

Swiatek lost in the quarter-finals 12 months ago so she will drop 215 points while Rybakina will drop 390 points as she reached the semi-final in 2025, but she is also assured of earning 108 points as she is substituting her next best result as it is higher than the Dubai result, which does not need to be counted in her ranking points.

Once those points come off and are added (in the case of the 108), Swiatek will be on 7,588 and the Kazakh star will have 7,241 points, which gives the Pole a lead of 347.

So what does Rybakina have to do to overtake Swiatek in the rankings?

There is a bit of good news for the six-time Grand Slam winner as the Kazakh player will need to reach the semi-final if she is reach a new career high of No 2 in the rankings as it is worth 390 points.

In case you were wondering, a quarter-final appearance is only worth 215 points and that would still leave her short of Swiatek’s tally of 7,803.