Tennis players from Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia have topped the freshly published WTA rankings. Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka and Mirra Andreeva — that is how the Top 3 of world women's tennis looks today. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Leadership retained despite Beijing setback
Despite an unsuccessful performance at the Beijing WTA 1000 event (Rybakina exited after her first match, Sabalenka after her second), the Kazakhstani and Belarusian players retained the first and second positions in the rankings. And the Krasnoyarsk-born Andreeva rose to third place for the first time in her career.
The 19-year-old Russian reached the final of China Open-2026, where she lost to the tournament host Zheng Qinwen (23) — 5:7, 4:6. The ranking points Andreeva earned in Beijing were enough for the current-year Roland Garros champion to overtake Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff in the ranking list.
The Wuhan WTA 1000 event
Sabalenka, Andreeva and Pegula are competing this week at the WTA 1000 event in Wuhan. Rybakina, along with last year's tournament champion Gauff, withdrew from participation for various reasons. As a result, they will lose 215 and 1000 ranking points respectively.
Kazakhstan in the singles draw of Wuhan Open-2026 will be represented by Yulia Putintseva, who made it into the main draw through qualifying. In the first round, our tennis player will face Zeynep Sonmez (58). At the AO-2026, the future two-time Asian Games bronze medalist defeated the Turkish representative — 6:3, 6:7 (3:7), 6:3.
Danilina in the doubles draw
In the doubles draw of the tournament in Wuhan, another bronze medalist of the 2026 Asian Games, 31-year-old Anna Danilina, will compete. Paired with 37-year-old Chinese player Zhang Shuai, she will begin her campaign from the second round. The Kazakh-Chinese tandem is seeded second at Wuhan Open-2026.
There is a possibility that Danilina will also meet Sonmez. For this, the Turkish player, who has a 153rd doubles ranking, together with Filipino Alexandra Eala (129), needs to get past the Ukrainian duo of Angelina Kalinina (143)/Dayana Yastremska (209).
Tournament history
The women's tournament Wuhan Open replaced the Japanese WTA-500 Pan Pacific Open in the tennis calendar in 2014. Since 2025, Wuhan Open has received WTA 1000 status.
For well-known reasons that made the city of Wuhan infamous worldwide, the tournament was not held from 2020 to 2023. Before that, it was won by Czech Petra Kvitova (2014, 2016), American Venus Williams (2015), Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia (2017) and three times in a row by Aryna Sabalenka (2018, 2019, 2024).