Ostapenko is up to her highest ranking since May 2018, a lull of nearly six years and is perhaps deserved given that she has only less wins than recent Abu Dhabi champion and Doha finalist, Elena Rybakina to lead the tour this season. She is 14-3 so far with two titles and her only losses have came against Victoria Azarenka.
She benefits from Maria Sakkari falling out of the top 10 for the first time in nearly three years. Staying power at the top despite only having two WTA titles to her name, the Greek has been ultra consistent up until recent months heralding her slide and has just split with coach Tom Hill as she aims for a new impetus.
While Iga Swiatek has increased her lead at the top. She finds herself with 1,395 points ahead of Aryna Sabalenka albeit defending 1,000 next week so that lead could soon drop. But she has opened up a gap again that wouldn’t have been there had the Belarusian played Doha.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Naomi Osaka are also the big movers this week. The former was outside the top 800 last February after knee surgery, but now finds herself on the verge of the top 20 going from 32nd to 24th and she reached consecutive semi-finals as her return to form continues.
While Naomi Osaka is up nearly 500 places. She goes up to 286th and could’ve even been back inside the top 70 in winning the title in Doha. A lot to be happy about for the former World No.1.
