Sabalenka enjoyed an incredible fortnight at Flushing Meadows as she won her third Grand Slam title and collected 2,000 ranking points for her effort.
The Belarusian, though, was defending 1,300 points as she finished runner-up last year so she added “only” 700 points to her tally to move to a total of 8,716.
Iga Swiatek remains at No 1 despite her quarter-final exit as she had built a healthy lead before the final Grand Slam of the tournament, but she picked up 190 points so the deficit between the top two has been reduced.
The reigning French Open champion leads Sabalenka by 2,169 points and the pressure will be on the Pole during the final few months of the WTA Tour campaign.
WTA Top 5 After US Open
1. Iga Swiatek Poland – 10,885 points
2. Aryna Sabalenka – 8,716
3. Jessica Pegula United States – 6,220
4. Elena Rybakina Kazakhstan – 5,871
5. Jasmine Paolini Italy – 5,398
6. Coco Gauff United States – 4,983
Swiatek has 2,600 points to defend between now and the end of the year while the world No 2 will only drop 840 points.
The Pole, who will next be in action at the WTA 500 Korea Open starting on September 16, will drop 100 points from the 2023 Pan Pacific Open in September while in October she will drop 1,000 points as she is the defending champion at the WTA 1000 China Open.
However, her biggest points drop – 1,500 points – will come from the WTA Finals as she won the 2023 season-ending tournament undefeated.
Sabalenka replaced Swiatek as world No 1 after last year’s US Open and she played only two tournaments after that, losing in the quarter-final of the China Open before she was beaten by Swiatek in the semi-final at the WTA Finals.
Swiatek’s undefeated run at Cancun helped her to pip Sabalenka to the year-end No 1 ranking and she will likely need another deep run to remain at No 1 as her lead is reduced to just 409 points once last year’s points are removed.
Jessica Pegula returned to No 3 in the rankings following her runners-up finishes in New York, but she will be under pressure from Elena Rybakina in the coming months as she is defending 1,713 points while the Kazakh player will drop onlhy 890 points.
Two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini will drop only 546 points while Coco Gauff will drop 1,015 points.
