Three-time major champion Aryna Sabalenka surpassed Iga Swiatek for the World No. 1 ranking to nearly close out the 2024 season.

It is the second time Sabalenka has risen to the No.1 ranking in her career, having held the spot for eight weeks between September and November last year.

Aryna Sabalenka has had quite the year, capturing two major titles – the Australian Open and U.S. Open – along with two WTA titles – the Cincinnati Open and, most recently, the Wuhan Open. She is a 17-time WTA winner and 14-time WTA finalist.

Neither Iga Swiatek nor Aryna Sabalenka were in action last week, but with some restructuring in the WTA rankings based around WTA 500 event commitments, there’s a major change at the top.

Players need to feature in at least six WTA 500 tournaments per year, but both came up short this season with Swiatek playing only two events and Sabalenka four.

With zero-pointers beginning to be applied to both Swiatek and Sabalenka’s ranking point totals this week, Swiatek goes from 9,785 to 9,665, and Sabalenka goes from 9,716 to 9,706.

And so, Sabalenka emerges as No. 1 this week.

Sabalenka toppled Swiatek by 41 points in the latest rankings published, overturning a 69-point deficit which stood at the beginning of the month.

But that is not the end of the points deductions as both will be hit with penalties again this week and that will effectively put them on 9,016 and 7,970 ahead of the WTA Finals.

For the second straight year, the year-end No.1 will be decided in the final week of the Hologic WTA Tour season, with Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek’s rivalry set to culminate at the WTA Finals Riyadh.

The 26-year-old has the WTA Finals to look forward to now. The top eight singles and doubles players in the world will compete for the year-end title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from Nov. 2-9. This will be Sabalenka’s third WTA Finals appearance. She’s never won the title, but she was runner-up to France’s Carolina Garcia in 2022.