Iga Swiatek's Beijing withdrawal could potentially have big implications for the world No. 1 and Year-End No. 1 battles as the Pole is now set to drop a huge amount of points and Aryna Sabalenka will further decrease the lead at the top.
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On Friday, the announcement came out that the Polish tennis star was pulling out of the upcoming China Open due to "personal reasons." Since the 23-year-old was supposed to be defending her title in China's capital next week, it was major news but also something that meant she would lose 1,000 points following the conclusion of the WTA 1000 tournament.
"Due to personal matters, Im forced to withdraw from the @ChinaOpen in Beijing. Im very sorry as I had an amazing time playing and winning this tournament last year and was really looking forward to being back there. I know that the fans will experience great tennis there and Im sorry I wont be a part of it this time," Swiatek said in a statement.
On the other side, Sabalenka has 215 points to defend in Beijing and she will reach that mark by reaching the quarterfinals. But if she goes further and makes it all the way, she will gain a further 785 ranking points.
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Currently, the Pole has 10,885 points but that number will decrease to 9,885 in two weeks. Meanwhile, the Belarusian has 8,716 points by her name and could easily go over 9k after the China Open.
When it comes to the race list, the 23-year-old has collected 8,285 ranking points while the 26-year-old gathered 7,876.
Sabalenka warned Swiatek she was coming for the top spot
This past US Open was a great one for the world No. 2, who captured her third Grand Slam title. But for the Pole, it didn't go as expected after she was upset by Jessica Pegula in the final.
After securing two Major titles in 2024, the Belarusian tennis star said she would be gunning to return to No. 1 for the rest of the year.
"I'm still hungry, for sure. Another goal for sure is to try to become World No.1 again. But I don't want to talk about this goal. I'm just trying to keep improving myself and keep getting better every day. But now I'll definitely have some days off so I can just enjoy this win and I can switch off and forget about tennis for a little bit. So I'll keep this freshness till the end of the season. Six weeks is not that much. But now I'll definitely have some days off so I can just enjoy this win and I can switch off and forget about tennis for a little bit. So I'll keep this freshness till the end of the season. Six weeks is not that much," Sabalenka told WTA Insider.
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Sabalenka did it in 2023 but her reign was short-lived
It was during last year's US Open that the 26-year-old learned she was guaranteed to overtake Swiatek at the world No. 1 spot. And after officially becoming the top-ranked player in the game for the first time on September 11th, 2023, the Belarusian spent eight weeks there before the Pole regained the No. 1 ranking following her WTA Finals victory.
Had Sabalenka defeated the current world No. 1 in the semifinals of the 2023 WTA Finals, she would have secured the Year-End No. 1 ranking for last season. But she didn't manage to do it and eventually fell just short of adding a very notable feat to her resume.
However, she is again in a position to fight for the top ranking and she is determined to not make the same mistakes this time.
The goal is first to be fit and healthy, because its going to take a while to recover. The main goal for us this season is to finish on a high note. Right now, I would say we can talk about the No 1 spot, to finish the year as No 1 is a really cool goal. But as I said, this [run in New York] took so much energy and emotions so first of all we need to also learn how we can recover as fast as we can and set those goals. Because everyone has goals and says, I want to win four Slams and finish No 1. Thats a cool goal and you can do it but it just takes you a while to manage it," Sabalenka's coach Anton Dubrov told The National this week.
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In early October, the WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan is slated to take place and that's where Sabalenka and Swiatek could possibly meet again.
