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WTA rankings update: Ashleigh Barty begins 114th week as World No. 1, Paula Badosa breaks into top 5

By Haresh Ramchandani
Modified Feb 09, 2022 04:17 GMT
Ashleigh Barty poses with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup after winning the 2022 Australian Open
Ashleigh Barty poses with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup after winning the 2022 Australian Open

25-year-old Ashleigh Barty has begun her 114th week at the top of the WTA rankings, while Paula Badosa climbed to a career-best ranking of No. 5. as per the latest list published by the WTA tour on Monday. Barty is now four weeks away from leapfrogging Justine Henin (117 weeks) and moving into seventh spot on the list of WTA players with the most weeks at World No. 1.

Barty has been ranked No. 1 for 107 consecutive weeks starting in September 2019 (the record for most consecutive weeks at World No. 1 in women's tennis is 186, jointly held by Steffi Graf and Serena Williams).

After claiming her third Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open last week, Barty has a lead of more than 2,600 points over her closest rival, World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.

With no events being held on the WTA tour last week, the changes in the rankings are due to points from last year's events in Australia dropping off the rankings tally.

Barty and Sabalenka are followed by French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova (No. 3) and the absent Karolina Pliskova (+1 to No. 4). Spain's Paula Badosa climbed one spot to break into the top 5 of the WTA rankings for the first time in her career.

She is followed by Garbine Muguruza (+1 to No. 6), Maria Sakkari (+1 to No. 7), Iga Swiatek (-4 to No. 8), Anett Kontaveit (No. 9) and Ons Jabeur (+1 to No. 10).

Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins drops to No. 11 in latest WTA rankings

Danielle Collins speaks to the media after the women's singles final at the 2022 Australian Open
Danielle Collins speaks to the media after the women's singles final at the 2022 Australian Open

Outside the top 10, Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins dropped one spot to No. 11 in the WTA rankings this week. Former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka (+1) and Angelique Kerber (+2) climbed to No. 17 and No. 18 respectively. Canada's Leylah Fernandez moved up two spots to a new career-best of No. 19 while American Cori Gauff dropped 3 spots to No. 20.

Elsewhere, 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams dropped three positions to No. 247 while sister Venus dropped three spots to No. 467 in the WTA rankings.