Iga Swiatek passes Justine Henin for eighth-most weeks at No. 1 in WTA rankings history
She’ll spend her 118th career week at the top spot during the first week of the US Open, surpassing the Belgian’s 117. Meanwhile, Andrey Rublev also hits a big ranking milestone.
Iga Swiatek hits yet another milestone in her increasingly-historic career today, as she kicks off her 118th week at No. 1, passing Justine Henin for eighth-most weeks at No. 1 in WTA rankings history.
She’ll spend her 118th and 119th weeks at the top spot in New York.
And it may not take her long to climb one more spot up the all-time list, as Ashleigh Barty is right around the corner at 121 career weeks.
MOST CAREER WEEKS AS WTA NO. 1 (since 1975):
377: Steffi Graf
332: Martina Navratilova
319: Serena Williams
260: Chris Evert
209: Martina Hingis
178: Monica Seles
121: Ashleigh Barty
118: Iga Swiatek
117: Justine Henin
98: Lindsay Davenport
Swiatek goes into the US Open with a massive 2,679-point lead at No. 1—she has 10,695 ranking points, while her two closest challengers, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, have 8,016 and 6,743. Those two players also have far more to defend in Flushing Meadows—Swiatek fell in the fourth round last year, while Sabalenka and Gauff were the runner-up and champion, respectively.
Meanwhile, several players make notable moves up the rankings after big weeks at the last few US Open lead-up events.
Czech teenager Linda Noskova won the biggest prize of the week at the WTA 500 event in Monterrey, Mexico, and now jumps 10 spots from No. 35 to No. 25—surpassing her previous career-high of No. 26.
The player she beat in the final, Lulu Sun, breaks into the Top 50 for the first time, rising from No. 57 to No. 41 after reaching the first WTA final of her career. The New Zealander just made her Top 100 debut after reaching her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon.
American McCartney Kessler soars from her previous career-high of No. 98 all the way to a new personal best of No. 63 after capturing the first WTA title of her career at the WTA 250 event in Cleveland. She had never even been to a WTA quarterfinal beforehand.
And another American, Alex Michelsen, makes his Top 50 debut on the ATP rankings, rising from No. 52 to No. 49 after reaching the third ATP final of his career at the ATP 250 stop in Winston Salem.
And last but certainly not least, Andrey Rublev hits a big ranking milestone—it's his 200th career week in the Top 10.
Rublev made his Top 10 debut on October 12th, 2020, and spent 97 weeks in the Top 10 before dipping to No. 11 on August 22nd, 2022—but he returned to the elite three weeks later on September 11th, 2022, and this week is his 103rd straight week since then.
He’s spent 41 of those 200 weeks at a career-high of No. 5.
Currently ranked No. 6, Rublev comes into the US Open in strong form—before taking last week off, he had played four tournaments in four weeks and reached the quarterfinals or better at all of them, making the semifinals in Umag, the quarterfinals in Washington D.C., the final in Montreal and the quarterfinals in Cincinnati.
