Jornal Correio | Bia Haddad maintains 10th place in the ranking and Sabalenka unbanks Swiatek at the top

Change at the top happened this Monday (21)

Beatriz Haddad Maia maintained 10th place in the WTA rankings this Monday. The Brazilian tennis player was in danger of leaving the Top 10 in this week’s update, but defeats by rivals in the Asian tour contributed to keeping Bia in the select list of the 10 best in the world.

Last week, Bia temporarily ranked ninth while competing in the Ningbo Tournament. But he was also close to losing 10th place. Eliminated in the quarterfinals, the Brazilian was surpassed in the ranking by Russian Daria Kasatkina, who became champion of the Chinese competition. But it held on to the Top 10 because American Danielle Collins fell to 11th place.

The Brazilian, however, will end up leaving the top 10 list in the coming weeks because the points from the title won in the WTA Elite Trophy, last year, will have been deducted. The competition is not part of this season’s calendar. Therefore, Bia will not be able to support these points.

But she will be able to minimize the drop, which should leave her between the Top 15 and Top 20, if she has a good campaign at the Tokyo Tournament, this week, in Japan. If she reaches the title, she shouldn’t lose more than two or three positions. In the Japanese capital, Bia will be the second seed, one of the favorites for the trophy.

Kasatkina’s entry into the Top 10 was not the only change in the select list this Monday. Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka overtook Polish Iga Swiatek and regained her position as number 1 tennis player in the world. Sabalenka surpassed her rival by just 41 points: 9,706 to 9,665.

The difference, however, is expected to increase in the coming weeks due to the adjustments that this year’s calendar has undergone compared to last season. The change at the top happened this Monday, even though neither tennis player took the court last week.

This is the second time that Sabalenka has reached the top. The first took place over a period of just a month and a half, between September and October last year.

With no major tournaments last week, the men’s ranking only underwent one change in the Top 10. Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov swapped positions with Australian Alex de Minaur and is now number nine in the world. The Italian Jannik Sinner, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and the Serbian Novak Djokovic, numbers 1, 2 and 4 in the world, played an exhibition tournament in Saudi Arabia last week, without any consequences for the ranking.

Among Brazilians, Thiago Wild rose again on the ATP list after good performances in Antwerp, Belgium. He gained two positions and appears in 78th place. Thiago Monteiro, in the opposite situation, suffered another drop, this time from 10 places, appearing in 98th position.

Check out the Top 10 of the women’s ranking:

1st – Aryna Sabalenka (BEL), 9,706 points

2nd – Iga Swiatek (POL), 9.665

3rd – Coco Gauff (USA), 5,963

4th – Jessica Pegula (USA), 5,785

5º – Elena Rybakina (CAS), 5.471

6º – Jasmine Paolini (ITA), 5.144

7º – Qinwen Zheng (CHN), 4.480

8th – Emma Navarro (USA), 3,698

9º – Daria Kasatkina (RUS), 3,500

10th – Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA), 3,194

See the list of the 10 best men’s categories:

1st – Jannik Sinner (ITA), 11,920 points

2nd – Carlos Alcaraz (ESP), 7,120

3º – Alexander Zverev (ALE), 6.795

4º – Novak Djokovic (SER), 6.210

5º – Daniil Medvedev (RUS), 5,530

6th – Taylor Fritz (USA), 4,380

7º – Andrey Rublev (RUS), 4.150

8º – Casper Ruud (NOR), 3.890

9º – Grigor Dimitrov (BUL), 3.735

10º – Alex de Minaur (AUS), 3,570