Top five players with most WTA 1000 level matches as World No. 1

Published at :February 18, 2024 at 5:32 PM

Modified at :February 18, 2024 at 6:30 PM

(Courtesy : AFP)

Serena Williams sits atop with 115 matches

Iga Swiatek’s record at the WTA 1000 tournaments has been stellar. The Pole has reached nine WTA 1000 finals and won seven of them, the most recent being the WTA Qatar Open triumph against Elena Rybakina. The World No. 1 appeared in her 42nd WTA match as World No. 1, leapfrogging Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka with 36 wins as No. 1.

Swiatek and Azarenka are among the five women players with the most matches at WTA 1000 events while being ranked World No. 1.

Read to know more about them and the other exceptional women who have graced the tennis courts:

Caroline Wozniacki – 28 matches

Former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki was the first Dane to win a major when she lifted the 2018 Australian Open trophy. She retired in 2020 due to a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. The mother of two announced a return to the tour in June 2023. Her official comeback began at the WTA 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati. It was in Cincinnati in 2005 that she took the first step on her journey on the WTA tour.

Caroline Wozniacki became the first Scandinavian woman to rise to the No.1 spot in October 2010, ending that year and the next as the top-ranked player. She held on to the top spot for 71 weeks, a run that came to a close in February 2018. Wozniacki reached the finals at the US Open in 2009 and 2014, losing to Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams, respectively.

The 2024 Australian Open was her first appearance since 2020, where she reached the second round before bowing out against qualifier and World No. 170, Maria Timofeeva.

Ashleigh Barty – 33 matches

Ashleigh Barty gave Australian tennis fans something to cheer about by becoming the first homegrown champion in 44 years. Following the Melbourne win, she became the first Australian woman to win the singles trophy since Chris O’Neil in 1978.

Barty was World No. 1 for a total of 121 weeks until her retirement in April 2022 at age 25. In all, Barty won three Grand Slam titles in her career – Roland Garros in 2019, Wimbledon in 2021, and the Australian Open in 2022. She did so in Melbourne by defeating Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6.

Ashleigh Barty became the first player to win the Newcombe Medal for the fifth time when she was awarded the medal in 2022. Named after Australian tennis legend John Newcombe, it is the highest individual honor in Australian tennis.

Victoria Azarenka – 36 matches

Hailing from Minsk, Belarus, Victoria Azarenka is a two-time Australian Open champion (2012, 2013) and has reached the finals at Flushing Meadows thrice (2012, 2023, 2020). She reached the semifinals at Melbourne Park in 2023, and the round of 16 in 2024. She made a semifinal appearance at the Brisbane International, falling to Aryna Sabalenka, who would defend her 2023 Australian Open crown successfully.

Azarenka became World No. 1 in the WTA rankings for the first time in January 2012, finishing the year in the same position. She remained at the top of the women’s tennis rankings until February 2013. Her first stint as No. 1 lasted 17 weeks between January and May 2012, and the second, longer stint lasted 31 weeks between July 9th, 2012, and February 11th, 2013.

Iga Swiatek – 42 matches

Iga Swiatek, who turned pro in 2019, made history the following year when she won the Roland Garros title without dropping a set. The maiden win made her the first Pole, man or woman to win a Grand Slam singles title. Swiatek won six titles in 2022 and eight in 2023. Her wins in 2022 included the French Open and the US Open, and for the first time, the WTA finals in 2023 – finishing the year-end event undefeated.

Swiatek’s 2022 heroics fetched her the World No. 1 ranking, which she held on to for 73 consecutive weeks between April 2022 and August 2023. She briefly lost the top spot to Aryna Sabalenka following her round of 16 exit in the 2023 US Open. She regained the No. 1 rank in November and is now at 90 weeks and counting in the much-desired position. The Pole is nearing Lindsay Davenport’s tally of 98 weeks as World No. 1.

The two-time French Open defending champion found that the top spot was thrust upon her following Ash Barty’s shock retirement mere weeks into claiming her maiden Australian Open trophy.

Swiatek needed just 61 minutes to breeze past Romanian Sorana Cirstea in her 37th WTA match as World No.1, winning 6-1, 6-1 as she pursues her third title in a row at Doha.

Serena Williams – 115 matches

At the very top of the table is Serena Williams, who has dominated the women’s game for nearly a quarter of a century. Her maiden Grand Slam win came at the 1999 US Open, the first of her 23 Grand Slam titles. Williams is tied with Steffi Grad for the longest streak among women, which stands at 186 consecutive weeks. The younger Williams has held on to the WTA’s No. 1 ranking for a total of 319 weeks, ahead of Chris Evert(260), behind Steffi Graf(377), and Martina Navratilova(332).

Williams is also the only player after Graf to have a Golden Slam in the bag, holding all the Grand Slam titles and the Olympic Gold simultaneously when she won the gold medal at the London Olympics in 2012. The American is also the only tennis player in history to own a Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.

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