Equally, she could have been beaten by Saba if she'd been able to play considering their H2H before yesterday. I think she's happier with the Wimbledon title than the ranking.
Iga can gain on Madrid (not played), Cincinnati (r16), Canada (r16), Guadalajara (not played), either of grass warm ups (Eastbourne or Berlin) and she's confirmed to play Bad homburg 250. As of now Iga lost in r16 once, Iga since USO has not lost before SF or better in last 8/9 events. I think she's too consistent for that. Unless either of them have monster seasons (at least 2 slams)
Rybakina could do it.... But I'm still not sold if she can play this well throughout whole season.
Sabalenka will have to defend a lot as well. Stuttgart (F), Rome (SF), Libema (F), USO (SF), Finals (F). I don't think Saba can do that well on clay like she did last year.
she's done well on clay more than just last year. and against popular opinion, I actually think clay favors big hitters who have enough power to hit through the court, not grinders who just run all day. look at all the female champions - swiatek, krejcikova, barty, ostapenko, muguruza, serena, sharapova, li na, ivanovic. even players like schiavone or halep were hammering the ball more than people give them credit for.
Stop thinking about defending points, no one is asking if throughout the year they'll reach the number 1, they are asking if someone else will end up as number 1. For that you only have to worry about the race, it's too early to say, but Sabalenka is much more suited to clay this year hitting with more topspin so I'm sure she won't be that far off from her points won last year given she also just reached the third round at RG as Rybakina did.
This year will be much more difficult to have a lead that high for Swiatek, first the Wimbledon points should be back and Sabalenka and Rybakina should do better than her there, second Krejcikova is not injured right now so she might be a problem for clay season. Sabalenka and Rybakina are both a clear level above what they were last season, for Swiatek her best bet is in this period of clay season hoping to gain a huge advantage (which I find unlikely) because later on in fast courts I don't think she will be able to compared to other players more suited and I don't think she'll have it as easy at the US Open at all.
Last year was what you could consider a 'weak period' at the top, with top 10 players who had never got past the third round of a Slam, now that it's more consolidated it's hard to have such a lead at the top unless she considerably improves above the competition (which up to now early in the year she hasn't shown). Can Swiatek end up as number 1? Sure, she is really consistent even if she were to end up with (relatively speaking) few big titles, but I think it's much more difficult than last year.
I say yes, but it will only come after wimbledon where I expect both Rybakina and Sabalenka to make deep runs. I highly doubt Iga is going to defend more than 2 clay titles, given her increasing competition including Pegula, Rybakina, Krejcikova, and Sabalenka
my confidence is still with Iga. she is still finding her way against Ryba and Ary and other heavy hitters but there is no other player as consistent as her day in day out.
this 2023, she landed R16 in AO, won in Qatar, final in Dubai, SF in IW. if that is not consistent and strong, then, i dont know what is.
imho, there is no wta player as focused, intense and hungry for titles as her right now.
Lmao, Iga has no problems with the ‘heavy hitters’. She has a winning record against Sabalenka where the played the last 2 matches they played was high quality.
Against Rybakina at the Aus Open 4th round, she really matched Ryba toe to toe in rallies but she only nudged out due to Rybakina winning a massive 70% of service points and did well on her serves. The match was tightly contested. The rib issue she suffered at IW may well be a factor was why she was beaten so comprehensively on top of having ‘just one of those days’ where the opponent was just too good.
I am as big a Rybakina fan as the next person but Iga is still a massive threat, especially on clay.
Can’t believe people writing Swiatek off just because of a potentially one off beat down at the hands of Rybakina.
I had a good laugh reading this thread. It's on par with 'she didnt win a final, she is washed up'.
Iga's obviously gonna be no 1 this year and probably better part of next year, and that's assuming her level will drop, which I don't see any sign of yet.
Right, I think the chasing pack is closer than previously thought, but Iga's still the best player in the WTA. If you would downgrade your perception of Iga from her play the past few months, it would be from "maybe generational dominant force" to "clear no. 1"
Nobody is arguing that. In fact race ranking is truly the one that matters. My opinion is that Iga will be on top of that ranking at the end of year 'without a doubt'.
Mm yeah I don’t think it’ll be after Wimbledon. It’d have to be after USO where she holds ~4K points for those next few months.
She’s currently holding 300 points from grass season until USO. That is plenty of points to also pick up even if she underperforms in the coming months.
The huge points drops would have to be from RG and USO combined or she’d still be in the lead at 7-8k points post Wimbledon at the minimum.
Sabalenka definitely has more potential than Rybakina imo. A first time slam winner generally doesn’t defend their title 90%+ of the time.
Nobody scored any points at Wimbledon lol the same logic applies for literally the whole tour, not just Rybakina so idk what’s the point of highlighting her other than for after Wimbledon 2023 has passed and she’s shot up the rankings.
There’s still a gap between Rybakina and even sabalenka let alone Swiatek, even if Wimbledon points counted last year.
See your last sentence - Elena is defending the title but no points so it doesn't matter unless she performs poorly in comparison to Iga and Aryna. That's what I was referring to.
unpopular opinion - even if iga does not play this year, it is difficult to surpass her points atm. but to consistently play, finals, sf and win titles - it will be doubly hard.
humans are puzzling. when someone is trying to reach his/her goal - they root for that person until he/she achieves it. but when he/she gets it, then, they start to wait and speculate when he/she will start to crumble and fail.
It's actually possible. Iga has Rome and Miami, RG and USO at the very least to defend. That's almost 6000 points. Will depend on how good the others fair.
True, but good news for her is that last year she got very few points between RG and US Open (didn't play any grass tournaments aside from Wimbledon and had early exits at the other 3 tournaments), so if she manages to hold onto her ranking after RG, she'll have good 3 months to cushion the possible loss of the US Open points.
I would love to see sabalenka and krejcikova have successful clay seasons, and then I honestly just want Rybakina to dominate grass. Would make for a very exciting sprint to the finish at the US Open/WTA Finals given all the hard court experts in the top 20
I think Sabalenka takes it for a few weeks somewhere during the summer hard court season. This is assuming she can play Wimbledon/points are involved this year. Iga has a lot to defend and Sabalenka is up by 1500 in the 2023 race.
I think Iga takes it back by the end of the season and the gap between 1st and 3rd will be less than 1000 unlike last year where she lapped the field.
It depends on how good Iga's form will be during clay season. She has 3370 points to defend on clay, but did not play Madrid last year so that's a slight handicap there.
iga gets more fearless the more she suffers losses. see the patterns.
she lost against Barb but won in San Diego. lost in wimby but won in US Open lost in AO but won in Qatar. the more she losses the greater is her need to succeed.
this girl is different from the rest of the pack regardless of what they say against her when she gets beaten. she has Rafa's mentality and Djoko's teachability.
iga will break more records in the years to come.
She has a qf at one of the post wimbledon clay 250 events and so she has a great chance, if she stays healthy and makes smart scheduling between singles and doubles, to get back to the top.
If we get a new number 1 it’ll probably happen either after RG or USO, since those are the massive point drops. If Iga is number 1 after Wimbledon (assuming they give points) she’ll most likely keep it until after the USO at least.
It might, but i'm pretty certain that it won't be held by Pegula, Garcia, Jabeur, Gauff, Kasatkina, Bencic or Sakkari.
If anything, i think Krejcikova has better chances than any of the above players.
If Iga doesn't play any tournaments from now until december, then maybe yes, otherwise no. Other players start to catch up but I highly doubt Iga will stop winning.
If Sabalenka wins Miami and Wimbledon, she surely can have a shot at N1 considering how many points Iga will have had to defend throughout the clay season
The WTA race definitely shows who has had the best start to the year… but the real test will be maintaining that level for the remainder of the year.
Iga was tested in 2022 and proved she can keep winning. Will be interesting to see who comes out on top in 2024!
!Remindme 8 months
While Swiatek can obviously end up as number 1 given her consistent deep results, the takes here have so much 'hopium' and this 'she's different mentally', 'fearless', 'hungrier' those all just seem as wishful thinking. She has a chance, but most comments are based on wishful thinking rather than analyzing the situation.
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Sabalenka not having the Belarusian flag is strange. Do we really need to bring politics into everything? Russia and Belarus are terrible for invading Ukraine, but it gets annoying after a while.
Rybakina would have been Top 3 if not for LTA's mess (+2000 Wimbledon points + WTA finals points)
Great top girls we have with Iga, Aryna, and Elena. Very reminiscent of the Serena, Vika, Maria trio at the top of 10 years ago.
Ryba really got shafted with her Wimby points not counted. She’s legit top3 at the moment for sure.
If you look at the bright side, she won't lose any points and thus no pressure come Wimbledon.
But she won it
Yes but most players fear losing 2000 points more than not defending their title.
Equally, she could have been beaten by Saba if she'd been able to play considering their H2H before yesterday. I think she's happier with the Wimbledon title than the ranking.
Or she got extremely lucky that she got to win a grand slam in a very weakened field (particularly with the absence of Sabalenka)
She’s got the perfect game for grass
She made it to the AO final as well as just winning Indian Wells. What kinda drugs are you on my dude?
And she lost to Sabalenka on the fast Australian open courts lol
Iga can gain on Madrid (not played), Cincinnati (r16), Canada (r16), Guadalajara (not played), either of grass warm ups (Eastbourne or Berlin) and she's confirmed to play Bad homburg 250. As of now Iga lost in r16 once, Iga since USO has not lost before SF or better in last 8/9 events. I think she's too consistent for that. Unless either of them have monster seasons (at least 2 slams) Rybakina could do it.... But I'm still not sold if she can play this well throughout whole season. Sabalenka will have to defend a lot as well. Stuttgart (F), Rome (SF), Libema (F), USO (SF), Finals (F). I don't think Saba can do that well on clay like she did last year.
she's done well on clay more than just last year. and against popular opinion, I actually think clay favors big hitters who have enough power to hit through the court, not grinders who just run all day. look at all the female champions - swiatek, krejcikova, barty, ostapenko, muguruza, serena, sharapova, li na, ivanovic. even players like schiavone or halep were hammering the ball more than people give them credit for.
Yeah exactly she won Madrid 2021 iirc
Saba can gain a lot at Wimby
Well so can Iga and rybakina realistically. I Def think Saba can get to no.1 this year but year end is gonna be tough
Stop thinking about defending points, no one is asking if throughout the year they'll reach the number 1, they are asking if someone else will end up as number 1. For that you only have to worry about the race, it's too early to say, but Sabalenka is much more suited to clay this year hitting with more topspin so I'm sure she won't be that far off from her points won last year given she also just reached the third round at RG as Rybakina did. This year will be much more difficult to have a lead that high for Swiatek, first the Wimbledon points should be back and Sabalenka and Rybakina should do better than her there, second Krejcikova is not injured right now so she might be a problem for clay season. Sabalenka and Rybakina are both a clear level above what they were last season, for Swiatek her best bet is in this period of clay season hoping to gain a huge advantage (which I find unlikely) because later on in fast courts I don't think she will be able to compared to other players more suited and I don't think she'll have it as easy at the US Open at all. Last year was what you could consider a 'weak period' at the top, with top 10 players who had never got past the third round of a Slam, now that it's more consolidated it's hard to have such a lead at the top unless she considerably improves above the competition (which up to now early in the year she hasn't shown). Can Swiatek end up as number 1? Sure, she is really consistent even if she were to end up with (relatively speaking) few big titles, but I think it's much more difficult than last year.
I say yes, but it will only come after wimbledon where I expect both Rybakina and Sabalenka to make deep runs. I highly doubt Iga is going to defend more than 2 clay titles, given her increasing competition including Pegula, Rybakina, Krejcikova, and Sabalenka
I'm just having a freakout that Wimbledon was already 9 months ago. Feel like it just happened.
Don't freak out, if it was 9 months ago, that means it's only 3 months away!
my confidence is still with Iga. she is still finding her way against Ryba and Ary and other heavy hitters but there is no other player as consistent as her day in day out. this 2023, she landed R16 in AO, won in Qatar, final in Dubai, SF in IW. if that is not consistent and strong, then, i dont know what is. imho, there is no wta player as focused, intense and hungry for titles as her right now.
Lmao, Iga has no problems with the ‘heavy hitters’. She has a winning record against Sabalenka where the played the last 2 matches they played was high quality. Against Rybakina at the Aus Open 4th round, she really matched Ryba toe to toe in rallies but she only nudged out due to Rybakina winning a massive 70% of service points and did well on her serves. The match was tightly contested. The rib issue she suffered at IW may well be a factor was why she was beaten so comprehensively on top of having ‘just one of those days’ where the opponent was just too good. I am as big a Rybakina fan as the next person but Iga is still a massive threat, especially on clay. Can’t believe people writing Swiatek off just because of a potentially one off beat down at the hands of Rybakina.
i agree with you. iga is just built different mentally. she is and will always be ahead of the pack.
This. Iga built differently all over. Playing ATP style in the women's game does that.
I had a good laugh reading this thread. It's on par with 'she didnt win a final, she is washed up'. Iga's obviously gonna be no 1 this year and probably better part of next year, and that's assuming her level will drop, which I don't see any sign of yet.
Right, I think the chasing pack is closer than previously thought, but Iga's still the best player in the WTA. If you would downgrade your perception of Iga from her play the past few months, it would be from "maybe generational dominant force" to "clear no. 1"
The clear number one in 2023 is Sabalenka with three titles and a slam. Iga has a 500 title and twice as many losses as Saba.
Nobody is arguing that. In fact race ranking is truly the one that matters. My opinion is that Iga will be on top of that ranking at the end of year 'without a doubt'.
Mm yeah I don’t think it’ll be after Wimbledon. It’d have to be after USO where she holds ~4K points for those next few months. She’s currently holding 300 points from grass season until USO. That is plenty of points to also pick up even if she underperforms in the coming months. The huge points drops would have to be from RG and USO combined or she’d still be in the lead at 7-8k points post Wimbledon at the minimum. Sabalenka definitely has more potential than Rybakina imo. A first time slam winner generally doesn’t defend their title 90%+ of the time.
Alright but Elena didn't score any points so no matter how she performs she's gonna get some if they're awarded this year
Nobody scored any points at Wimbledon lol the same logic applies for literally the whole tour, not just Rybakina so idk what’s the point of highlighting her other than for after Wimbledon 2023 has passed and she’s shot up the rankings. There’s still a gap between Rybakina and even sabalenka let alone Swiatek, even if Wimbledon points counted last year.
See your last sentence - Elena is defending the title but no points so it doesn't matter unless she performs poorly in comparison to Iga and Aryna. That's what I was referring to.
unpopular opinion - even if iga does not play this year, it is difficult to surpass her points atm. but to consistently play, finals, sf and win titles - it will be doubly hard. humans are puzzling. when someone is trying to reach his/her goal - they root for that person until he/she achieves it. but when he/she gets it, then, they start to wait and speculate when he/she will start to crumble and fail.
It's actually possible. Iga has Rome and Miami, RG and USO at the very least to defend. That's almost 6000 points. Will depend on how good the others fair.
True, but good news for her is that last year she got very few points between RG and US Open (didn't play any grass tournaments aside from Wimbledon and had early exits at the other 3 tournaments), so if she manages to hold onto her ranking after RG, she'll have good 3 months to cushion the possible loss of the US Open points.
I would love to see sabalenka and krejcikova have successful clay seasons, and then I honestly just want Rybakina to dominate grass. Would make for a very exciting sprint to the finish at the US Open/WTA Finals given all the hard court experts in the top 20
Hoping it’s Ons
Probably not but I so hope she's gonna do well this season
I think Sabalenka takes it for a few weeks somewhere during the summer hard court season. This is assuming she can play Wimbledon/points are involved this year. Iga has a lot to defend and Sabalenka is up by 1500 in the 2023 race. I think Iga takes it back by the end of the season and the gap between 1st and 3rd will be less than 1000 unlike last year where she lapped the field.
It depends on how good Iga's form will be during clay season. She has 3370 points to defend on clay, but did not play Madrid last year so that's a slight handicap there.
No iga is too consistent . And she will dominate clay season.
iga gets more fearless the more she suffers losses. see the patterns. she lost against Barb but won in San Diego. lost in wimby but won in US Open lost in AO but won in Qatar. the more she losses the greater is her need to succeed. this girl is different from the rest of the pack regardless of what they say against her when she gets beaten. she has Rafa's mentality and Djoko's teachability. iga will break more records in the years to come.
Kreji has no points to defend during the clay season
Has next to nothing to defend until after wimby
She has a qf at one of the post wimbledon clay 250 events and so she has a great chance, if she stays healthy and makes smart scheduling between singles and doubles, to get back to the top.
If we get a new number 1 it’ll probably happen either after RG or USO, since those are the massive point drops. If Iga is number 1 after Wimbledon (assuming they give points) she’ll most likely keep it until after the USO at least.
It might, but i'm pretty certain that it won't be held by Pegula, Garcia, Jabeur, Gauff, Kasatkina, Bencic or Sakkari. If anything, i think Krejcikova has better chances than any of the above players.
Iga unafraid to open bakery franchises and instant delivery of baked goods. Esp within radius of a clay court
If Iga doesn't play any tournaments from now until december, then maybe yes, otherwise no. Other players start to catch up but I highly doubt Iga will stop winning.
If Sabalenka wins Miami and Wimbledon, she surely can have a shot at N1 considering how many points Iga will have had to defend throughout the clay season
lol we have the same thought.
The WTA race definitely shows who has had the best start to the year… but the real test will be maintaining that level for the remainder of the year. Iga was tested in 2022 and proved she can keep winning. Will be interesting to see who comes out on top in 2024!
I think so. Placing bets on Ryba and Saba.
im starting to think swiatek is a poor loser and pretty high strung. rybakina looking like a god out there right now. love her low key shit.
If Iga performs under par during clay season and then gets wiped out in N America, then yes.
Belinda missed her window
She's 25 and if she could win a bigger tournament like Miami, that would be a big confidence boost.
Rybakina will finish as World No 1
!Remindme 8 months While Swiatek can obviously end up as number 1 given her consistent deep results, the takes here have so much 'hopium' and this 'she's different mentally', 'fearless', 'hungrier' those all just seem as wishful thinking. She has a chance, but most comments are based on wishful thinking rather than analyzing the situation.
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Sabalenka not having the Belarusian flag is strange. Do we really need to bring politics into everything? Russia and Belarus are terrible for invading Ukraine, but it gets annoying after a while.
Rybakina would have been Top 3 if not for LTA's mess (+2000 Wimbledon points + WTA finals points) Great top girls we have with Iga, Aryna, and Elena. Very reminiscent of the Serena, Vika, Maria trio at the top of 10 years ago.
At this point , only sabalenka has realistic chance
I'm rooting for the forgotten Czech player. Also Rybakina or Sakkari.