THE 2021 WTA Tour rankings have seen plenty of changes as the year has gone by, with four different Grand Slam winners gracing the court as young talent flies up the ranks and some established names fall. We take a look at some of the recent and notable movements in the rankings.

While not necessarily a huge jump in rankings, Iga Swiatek has broken new ground this week with a dip into the worldwide top five for the very first time, debuting at world number four this week and rising two ranks. It caused a swap in positions with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who has sunken slightly to sixth, while Naomi Osaka and Sofia Kenin followed suit switching to seventh and eighth after reversing the past week. Meanwhile, Maria Sakkari made her Top 10 debut after reaching the Ostrava WTA 500 final, commenting on the greatness of the milestone – not only a career-best ranking, but also becoming the first Greek woman to crack the top 10.

“People don’t realise how big it is for someone who at the age of 26 – not the age of 20 – cracks into the Top 10,” Sakkari said. “When no one believed I could do it, myself and the people around me really believed in me.

“I don’t want to sound like I achieved my goal, but it’s a big step for my career and for every tennis player. “Of course I see myself as higher, but we’ll take it step-by-step.”

Sakkari joins compatriot Stefanos Tsitsipas in their respective top 10s for the first time in the country’s history, with Greece one of two countries within the top 10 in both the men’s and women’s, alongside Spain (Rafael Nadal, 6th, and Garbine Muguruza, 9th).

There were a number of big movers in and around the top 50 this week, with the largest dropping a whopping 32 ranks lower than the week prior in Belgian Alison van Uytvanck. Uytvanck has dropped from 55th to 87th in the space of a week after dropping 281 points from the Tashkent 250 title she won in 2019, the final time the event was held. Elsewhere, Anett Kontaveit reaching a career-high world number 23, rising seven ranks from 30th last week. She captured her second title of the 2021 season against fourth seeded Sakkari, also knocking off third seed Belinda Bencic and second seed Petra Kvitova on her way to the Ostrava trophy. Kvitova was relegated to 11th on the rankings in the process following a slight points adjustment, while Bencic rose to 10th.

Meanwhile, Alison Riske dropped 18 spots to 50th on the rankings, after rising from 38 to 32 just last week. This comes after 705 points dropped off her tally from the Wuhan final and Beijing Round of 16 in 2020. In other similar drops in points, Dayana Yastremska has dropped 19 ranks to 72nd in the world, while Qiang Wang has dropped to 81st from 71st last week and Sloane Stephens has dropped nine ranks to 63rd. Nuria Parrizas Diaz and Clara Burel have both made their top 80 debuts, with Parrizas Diaz sitting in 73rd after rising 13 ranks, and Burel rising 12 to sit 79th.

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