Elena Rybakina was the biggest winner last weekend after capturing her third title of the season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
The ice-cold Kazakh dethroned Iga Swiatek as Stuttgart champion in an epic semifinal. She consolidated that result by crushing Marta Kostyuk in the final to walk away not just with a trophy but also a brand-new Porsche car.
Rybakina added 500 points to her total in this year’s WTA Race, bridging the gap between herself and leader Swiatek. Just 142 points separate them heading to Madrid for the first WTA 1000 on clay.
Aryna Sabalenka had reached three successive finals in Stuttgart but was sent packing in the quarterfinal stage this year by Marketa Vondrousova. She stays third behind Swiatek and Rybakina.
Danielle Collins took a rare week off but kept her spot in fourth place after winning back-to-back titles between the end of March and the start of April in Miami and Charleston. The Florida native is now the best-performing American woman in 2024, ahead of Coco Gauff (fifth).
Marta Kostyuk entered the Top 10 (7th) because of her giant-killing run in Stuttgart, in which she defeated three Top 10 opponents in the world rankings to reach the final.
The race still has an unfamiliar look to it, with Jasmine Paolini, Jelena Ostapenko, and Anna Kaliskaya still occupying the Top 10. Players who will look to make inroads during the clay swing include Daria Kasatkina (11th) and Maria Sakkari (12th), who have each headlined a Roland Garros semifinal in recent years.
Emma Navarro (13th) will also look to impress on the dirt after a terrific breakthrough year. Still, compatriot Jessica Pegula (19th) will likely lose her spot in the Top 20 of the race by confirming her absence from Madrid because of injury.
The WTA Race will determine the top eight women who will qualify for the year-end WTA Finals. This year’s season finale will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at what will be a historic moment in women’s tennis.