Elena Rybakina has officially claimed the year-end WTA number one ranking after her winning start in Tokyo.
Already the WTA number one, she needed just one victory at the Japan Open to achieve the feat. And she has done exactly that thanks to a 6-2, 6-3 victory over fellow Kazakhstani player Yulia Putintseva. Rybakina needed one hour and 10 minutes to secure the win, which arrived in the second round in Tokyo following her first round bye.
She now meets Canadian Leylah Fernandez in the quarterfinals, in what will be her first match since clinching the year-end number one spot. And it’s fair to say it has been quite the rise from the 27-year-old up to this significant milestone.
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Elena Rybakina’s ranking rise to WTA year-end number one
Rybakina began her WTA rankings journey back in 2016, when she occupied number 606, but finished the year at 616. From there the 17-year-old went from strength to strength, and by 2019 had become a top 50 player, reaching as high as 36th in the rankings.
In the years that followed, she broke into the top 20, and by 2023 had finished a season inside the top five. Now following 10 years of holding a ranking, the Kazakhstan ace has very impressively climbed to the top of the pile.
| Top rank by year | Year-end ranking | |
| 1 | 2026 | 1 |
| 5 | 2025 | 5 |
| 3 | 2024 | 6 |
| 3 | 2023 | 4 |
| 12 | 2022 | 22 |
| 14 | 2021 | 14 |
| 17 | 2020 | 19 |
| 36 | 2019 | 37 |
| 175 | 2018 | 191 |
| 420 | 2017 | 425 |
| 606 | 2016 | 616 |
With four titles in 2026 – including two at Grand Slam level – it is fair to say that Rybakina deserves her current ranking. Along with winning the Australian Open and the US Open, she has also triumphed at Stuttgart and Ningbo this season. Of course, the campaign is certainly not over for the now 15-time WTA champion. She is currently chasing success in Tokyo, and will also participate in the WTA Finals.
But sharing her reaction to her latest feat at the Japan Open, she said: “Yeah, super happy, very proud of this achievement, and happy with the match today also. Yulia is a tough opponent but I think I played pretty solid from beginning to end.”
Rybakina added: “Yeah today the serve definitely helped me in these important moments, and I was just trying to pick my spot. And I think today with the closed roof, and I think the combination of the ball and the court just makes me feel better serving-wise, and I’m glad today worked.”
She now moves on to a seventh career meeting with Fernandez, against whom she has a 4/2 win/loss record. And the winner of that quarterfinal encounter will then take on either Kamilla Rakhimova or Maya Joint in the semifinals.
But aside from her positive history with Fernandez, Rybakina should be on a high anyway after becoming the 17th WTA year-end number one. She follows in the footsteps of the likes of current stars Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, and tennis legends such as Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova.
