Aryna Sabalenka kicks off milestone 50th career week at No. 1 on WTA rankings

Aryna Sabalenka may not have played in Montreal this year, but that doesn’t mean she can’t still hit a big rankings milestone—she kicks off her 50th career week at No. 1 today.

That tally comes in two stints—she spent her first eight weeks at the top spot between September 11th and November 5th, 2023, before returning to the top spot on October 21st, 2024, and this is her 42nd straight week there since then.

The three-time Grand Slam champion is the 14th player to hit 50 weeks at No. 1 since WTA rankings began in 1973.

PLAYERS TO SPEND 50+ CAREER WEEKS AT NO. 1 ON WTA RANKINGS (since 1973):

• 377: Steffi Graf
• 332: Martina Navratilova
• 319: Serena Williams
• 260: Chris Evert
• 209: Martina Hingis
• 178: Monica Seles
• 125: Iga Swiatek
• 121: Ashleigh Barty
• 117: Justine Henin
• 98: Lindsay Davenport
• 71: Caroline Wozniacki
• 64: Simona Halep
• 51: Victoria Azarenka
• 50: Aryna Sabalenka

And unless something drastic happens, Sabalenka should hold No. 1 for the foreseeable future—though she has title defenses worth a total of 3,000 points coming up at Cincinnati and the US Open, she’s currently 4,751 ranking points ahead of the current No. 2, Coco Gauff, 12,420 to 7,669.

This is also Sabalenka’s milestone 200th career week in the Top 5 of the WTA rankings. She first broke into the elite on May 10th, 2021 after winning the first of her now-three Madrid titles, and this is her fourth and longest stint since then.

SABALENKA'S 200 TOP 5 WEEKS BY STINT:

• 52 weeks [May 10th, 2021 to May 8th, 2022]
• 1 week [June 13th to 19th, 2022]
• 3 weeks [October 3rd to 23rd, 2022]
• 144 weeks [November 7th, 2022 to present]

And she’s actually spent almost exactly three quarters of those 200 weeks—149 to be exact—in the Top 2.

SABALENKA'S 200 TOP 5 WEEKS BY RANKING:

• 50 weeks at No. 1
• 99 weeks at No. 2
• 19 weeks at No. 3
• 14 weeks at No. 4
• 18 weeks at No. 5