Iga Swiatek or Aryna Sabalenka? Year-end World No. 1 ranking up for grabs at WTA Finals

Iga Swiatek or Aryna Sabalenka? Year-end World No. 1 ranking up for grabs at WTA Finals

The 2024 WTA tennis season officially concludes on Nov. 9 at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The stakes and ranking points for this hard-court event are high. The winner earns 1,500 points. Only Grand Slams have a higher point distribution at 2,000 for the champion.

The stakes are even higher for two players, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka. Swiatek currently holds the World No. 1 ranking with 9,785 ranking points; World No. 2 Sabalenka is close behind with 8,716 points.

Swiatek has not played since the U.S. Open in September. Sabalenka is currently playing during the Asian swing of the WTA Tour and is in the running for 1,000 points earned by the champion at the 2024 Wuhan Open.

Sabalenka can overtake Swiatek and finish as the World No. 1 with a win in Riyadh. She has the momentum and confidence after winning both hard-court Grand Slams (Australian Open and U.S. Open) in 2024. Despite battling a shoulder injury that kept her from playing at Wimbledon, she has a 49-12 win-loss record this year.

Swiatek has struggled by her high standards, with a 54-7 win-loss record this year. She won one Grand Slam (French Open) in 2024.

Fighting for the year-end World No. 1 ranking is familiar territory for these two players. In September 2023, Sabalenka briefly grabbed the World No. 1 ranking from Swiatek after the U.S. Open. Swiatek had to win the 2023 WTA Finals to get the World No. 1 ranking back. Swiatek played a gutsy tournament in awful weather conditions in Cancun and emerged the champion and World No. 1.

This could be why the five-time Grand Slam champion recently announced that she was changing coaches. After splitting with Tomasz Wiktorowski, Swiatek skipped the Asian swing to find a new coach. An announcement of her new coach is presumed to be imminent so the two can work together for a few weeks before the WTA Finals.

Will the red-hot Sabalenka continue her hard-court success by completing career firsts of winning the 2024 WTA Finals and ending the year as World No. 1? Or will the rested Swiatek charge into Riyadh to grab the WTA Finals title and hold onto the World No. 1 ranking again this year? Time will tell.