Aryna Sabalenka took full advantage of her golden opportunity to narrow the gap to Iga Swiatek at the top of the WTA Rankings by winning the Wuhan Open title.
The three-time Grand Slam champion defeated world No 7 Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in the championship match at the WTA 1000 tournament.
Sabalenka‘s record third Wuhan Open crown is her fourth title of 2024, following triumphs at the Australian Open, the Cincinnati Open and the US Open
The world No 2 has now won 20 of her last 21 matches and three of the last four events she has played during a stunning hard-court run that started in Cincinnati in August.
The 1000 points Sabalenka has earned for winning the Wuhan Open has taken her points total to 9,716 in the live WTA Rankings, leaving her only 69 points behind Swiatek.
Swiatek has not played since her US Open quarter-final defeat to Jessica Pegula at the start of September, and her absence has allowed Sabalenka to gain significant ground.
The Pole’s withdrawal from the 2024 China Open saw her drop 1000 points as she won the tournament last year. Sabalenka, meanwhile, was a quarter-finalist at the China Open in Beijing.
Following her victory against Zheng in the Wuhan final, Sabalenka gave her reaction to the fact she is now only 69 points behind her biggest rival.
“Yeah, that’s really tight ranking right now. Really nice to see,” Sabalenka told reporters.
“I always say of course it’s one of the goals, but I prefer focus on myself and just keep working hard. We’ll see after the Finals if I was good enough this season to become world No 1.”
Sabalenka is top of the live WTA Race to Riyadh rankings on 9,091 points following her Wuhan title run, while Swiatek is 806 points behind in second with 8,285.
The 26-year-old Belarusian’s success in China means the WTA year-end No 1 ranking will be decided at next month’s WTA Finals in Riyadh.
Swiatek defeated Sabalenka in the semi-finals of the 2023 WTA Finals en route to winning the event without losing a single set.
The 23-year-old Pole will, therefore, be defending the maximum total of 1,500 points at the year-end championships, while Sabalenka will defend 625 points.
