Sabalenka and Swiatek in two-way battle for year-end world No 1 ranking at WTA Finals

The women’s tennis season has seen four different Grand Slam winners but the battle for the year-end world No 1 ranking will come down to Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek at the WTA Finals in Cancun next week.

Sabalenka currently has 8,425 points in the Race to the WTA Finals leaderboard, which gives her a 630-point lead over Swiatek, who has 7,795 points.

With that lead, the Belarusian is in a better position to wrap the year-end top spot. Sabalenka could do the same by reaching the final with a 2-1 record in the round-robin stage whereas Swiatek, who finished 2022 as the year-end No 1, will need to at least reach the final if she wants to repeat her feat from 12 months ago.

Here are some of the scenarios as listed by the WTA Tour website for Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open in January:

• If Swiatek loses one round-robin match, Sabalenka can secure the year-end No 1 by winning all her round-robin matches or reaching the final
• If Swiatek loses two round-robin matches, Sabalenka can secure the top spot with a 2-1 record in round-robin play

For Swiatek, who won the French Open this year, here is what the Pole needs to do to end the season as world No 1:

• If Sabalenka goes 0-3 in the group, Swiatek needs to win the title or reach the final with a 3-0 record in the group stage
• If Sabalenka goes 1-2 in round-robin stage, Swiatek would need to win the title
• If Sabalenka goes 2-1 in round-robin play, Swiatek would need to win the title with at least two round-robin victories
• If Sabalenka goes 3-0 in round-robin stage, then Swiatek would need to go undefeated, winning the title with a 3-0 record in round-robin.