When was the last time No. 1 and No. 2 on the WTA rankings played each other before a final?

Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina will clash in the semifinals of the Miami Open on Thursday night, which seems strange given they’re currently ranked No. 1 and No. 2—why isn’t this a final?

Well, the Miami draw—and with it the Miami seeds—were made before the rankings were updated after Indian Wells, so at the time, Rybakina was still ranked No. 3, and thus seeded No. 3 in Miami.

She moved up to No. 2 on the WTA rankings afterwards.

And since in any draw the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds are placed randomly in either the top or the bottom half, it just so happened that No. 1 seed (and current world No. 1) Sabalenka got No. 3 seed (and new world No. 2) Rybakina in her half of the draw.

Now that we know how we got here, just how rare is this?

It turns out that this is very rare—in fact, tonight will be just the 10th time on record, according to the WTA’s official media guide, that the No. 1 and No. 2 players on the WTA rankings will play each other before a final in WTA rankings history, which dates back to 1975.

That’s 10 times in just over 50 years.

WTA NO. 1 AND WTA NO. 2 MEETING BEFORE THE FINAL (since 1975):

• 1977 Palm Springs [round robin]: No. 1 Evert d. No. 2 Navratilova
• 1981 Canada [semifinals]: No. 1 Evert d. No. 2 Jaeger
• 1987 Miami [semifinals]: No. 2 Graf d. No. 1 Navratilova
• 1996 Roland Garros [semifinals]: co-No. 1 Graf d. No. 2 Martinez
• 1998 US Open [semifinals]: No. 1 Hingis d. No. 2 Novotna
• 2010 WTA Finals [semifinals]: No. 1 Wozniacki d. No. 2 Zvonareva
• 2012 WTA Finals [semifinals]: No. 2 Sharapova d. No. 1 Azarenka
• 2019 WTA Finals [semifinals]: No. 1 Barty d. No. 2 Pliskova
• 2023 WTA Finals [semifinals]: No. 2 Swiatek d. No. 1 Sabalenka
• 2026 Miami [semifinals]: No. 1 Sabalenka vs. No. 2 Rybakina

The Top 2 playing before a final happens for a variety of reasons.

The first time, in Palm Springs in 1977, it was a round-robin format.

The last four times, at the WTA Finals in 2010, 2012, 2019 and 2023, it was because of the partial round-robin format, where the first place finisher in one round-robin group plays the second place finisher from the other round-robin group in the semifinals and vice versa, meaning No. 1 and No. 2 could easily collide in the semifinals.

At Roland Garros in 1996, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles were co-ranked No. 1 at the time as Seles continued her comeback to the tour, and they were the top two seeds there. Conchita Martinez, who was ranked No. 2 at the time, was seeded No. 3 and fell in Graf’s half of the draw, and they met in a semifinal between co-No. 1 and No. 2.

And then there have been several instances where seeds were based on the previous ranking period and No. 1 and No. 2 just happened to fall in the same half—just like tonight.