Rankings Watch: Rybakina’s climb, mothers back in Top 10, youth on the rise

The first Grand Slam of 2026 is in the books, and the Australian Open crowned a new champion in Melbourne. Elena Rybakina captured her second major title with a three-set win over World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s final.

Rybakina moves up two places to No. 3 in this week’s PIF WTA Rankings, matching the career high she first reached in June 2023 and last held in January 2024. Rybakina has won 20 of her last 21 matches dating back to October, with her only loss in that stretch coming against Karolina Muchova in the Brisbane quarterfinals. She has also won 10 straight matches against Top 10 opponents over that span.

The rise follows a mid-2025 dip that saw Rybakina fall out of the Top 10 for four months, reaching a low of No. 13 in July. She now sits 368 points behind World No. 2 Iga Swiatek.

Svitolina, Bencic make Top 10 history for mothers

For the first time in rankings history, two mothers feature inside the Top 10.

Former No. 4 Belinda Bencic returned to the Top 10 last month after going unbeaten at the United Cup, 14 months after returning from maternity leave. The Swiss player reached the second round of the Australian Open and rises one place this week to No. 9.

Elina Svitolina advanced to her fourth Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open, recording wins over Mirra Andreeva and Coco Gauff before her 10-match winning streak was ended by Aryna Sabalenka. Svitolina, who returned from maternity leave in April 2023, has now reached two of her four career major semifinals as a mother. She re-enters the Top 10 this week, climbing two places to No. 10 -- her first appearance inside the Top 10 since October 2021.

Bencic and Svitolina are the fifth and sixth players to be ranked inside the Top 10 as mothers, following Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams.

Youth surge: Jovic makes Top 20 debut, Valentova cracks Top 50

Five teenagers reached the Australian Open third round -- the most at any major since the 2009 US Open. Four of the five are up to new career highs this week:

Canada's Victoria Mboko, 19, made the last 16 of a major for the first time on her Australian Open debut and climbs three spots to No. 13.

The United States' Iva Jovic, 18, claimed her first career Top 10 win, taking out Jasmine Paolini en route to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Jovic jumps seven places to make her Top 20 debut at No. 20. The youngest player in the Top 100, Jovic was playing just her sixth Grand Slam main draw.

Tereza Valentova, 18, reached the third round of a major for the first time (in just her third main draw), and the Czech makes her Top 50 debut with a 10-place leap to No. 44.

Fellow Czech Nikola Bartunkova, 19, qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw and scored upsets of Daria Kasatkina and Belinda Bencic -- the latter her first Top 10 win -- to make the third round, and is up 18 places to No. 108.

Additionally, despite her first-round loss to Valentova, 19-year-old Australian Maya Joint climbs two places to No. 29, entering the Top 30 for the first time.

Tjen becomes second Indonesian to reach Top 50

This time last year, Janice Tjen was ranked No. 395. This week, the 23-year-old makes her Top 50 debut after reaching the Australian Open second round, jumping 12 places to No. 47. Tjen, who won her first WTA title last November in Chennai, becomes the second Indonesian in rankings history to reach the Top 50 following Yayuk Basuki, who peaked at No. 19 in 1997 -- the year she reached her only Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon.

Also up to new career highs after impressive showings in Melbourne are:

Elsa Jacquemot rallied from match point down to defeat Marta Kostyuk in a three-hour, 31-minute first-round match decided by three tiebreaks -- the longest main-draw match of the season so far. The win marked the Frenchwoman’s first career victory over a Top 20 opponent and lifts her seven places to No. 53.

Petra Marcinko, the 2022 Australian Open junior champion, reached the second round on her senior Grand Slam debut. The 20-year-old Croatian is up 12 spots to No. 69.

Oksana Selekhmeteva upset 2025 semifinalist Paula Badosa to reach the third round of a major for the first time. The 23-year-old leaps 25 places to No. 76.

Melbourne runs boost Wang Xinyu, Putintseva, Inglis

Several players are moving back in the right direction after positive runs at the Australian Open:

Wang Xinyu, +13 to No. 33: Wang upset two seeds, Jelena Ostapenko and Linda Noskova, to make the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the third time. Having also reached her second career final in Auckland last month, the Chinese player is just one spot beneath her career high of No. 32.

Peyton Stearns, +18 to No. 50: The American defeated former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin en route to the third round, and returns to the Top 50 for the first time since August.

Hailey Baptiste, +14 to No. 56: Baptiste reached the third round in Melbourne for the first time, where she took Coco Gauff to three sets.

Yulia Putintseva, +24 to No. 70: Putintseva's fourth-round run in Melbourne means she has now completed the set of second-week showings at each Grand Slam in her career. The 31-year-old Kazakhstani is a two-time Roland Garros quarterfinalist (2016, 2018), a US Open quarterfinalist in 2020 and reached the fourth round of Wimbledon 2024.

Zeynep Sonmez, +33 to No. 79: As a qualifier, Sonmez became the first Turkish woman in the Open Era to reach the Australian Open third round -- a run that included a first-round upset of Ekaterina Alexandrova, her second career Top 20 win. The 23-year-old returns to the Top 100 for the first time since October.

Maddison Inglis, +55 to No. 113: The Australian put together a remarkable run from two match points down in her first qualifying round against Leyre Romero Gormaz all the way to the fourth round. Inglis won four three-setters in five matches, then got a third-round walkover from Naomi Osaka. The 28-year-old is one spot beneath the career high of No. 112 that she set in 2020.

Storm Hunter, +117 to No. 250: Former doubles No. 1 Storm Hunter climbed to a career-high singles ranking of No. 114 in April 2024 before an Achilles injury halted her progress for more than a year. The 31-year-old returned as a qualifying wild card in Melbourne and reached the second round of the main draw.

Bai Zhuoxuan, +329 to No. 373: Former No. 83 Bai was sidelined for most of the 13 months between September 2024 and October 2025 due to low back and ankle injuries, and when she returned to the tour she was unranked. The Chinese 23-year-old qualified and made the second round in Melbourne for the first time, saving one match point to defeat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round.

Andreescu, Stephens, Pliskova, Brady on the comeback trail

Two former Grand Slam titlists rediscovered the winning feeling by dropping down a level over the past few weeks.

Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, played a Grand Slam qualifying event for the first time since Wimbledon 2011 at the Australian Open. The American, who was sidelined by a foot injury for six months of 2025, snapped a 13-match losing streak dating back to Wimbledon 2024 to qualify for the main draw. She leaps 330 places from No. 1,102 to No. 772.

Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion, opted out of the Australian swing to compete in three ITF events in Florida. The Canadian compiled a 13-1 record, winning the Bradenton W35 and Vero Beach W75 titles and making the Weston ITF W35 semifinals in between. Former No. 4 Andreescu climbs 66 places from No. 228 to No. 162.

Two former Grand Slam finalists have also found joy on the comeback trail in recent weeks.

Karolina Pliskova, runner-up at the US Open 2016 and Wimbledon 2021, was sidelined by a foot injury in 2024-25 for 13 months. Playing her first tour-level event since the US Open 2024, the Czech made the third round of the Australian Open after defeating Stephens in the first round, and rockets 641 places from No. 1,057 to No. 416.

Jennifer Brady, the 2021 Australian Open runner-up, played her first tournament in over two years -- since Beijing 2023 -- at last week's San Diego ITF W100. The 30-year-old American reached the semifinals, and re-enters the rankings at No. 807.

Mertens reclaims doubles top spot after Australian Open triumph

Elise Mertens joined forces with Zhang Shuai to capture her sixth Grand Slam doubles title at the Australian Open last week, and her third in Melbourne -- all with different partners. (The Belgian previously lifted the trophy in 2021 with Aryna Sabalenka, and in 2024 with Hsieh Su-Wei.)

Mertens leaps five places from No. 6 back to World No. 1 -- her 10th separate stint at the top of the doubles rankings, and first since July 2024. (She first rose to the summit in May 2021.) Mertens is currently the reigning champion at two majors as well as the WTA Finals Riyadh, having won Wimbledon and Riyadh alongside Veronika Kudermetova last year.

Tagger, Korneeva, Pohankova lead teenage surge on ITF World Tennis Tour

The past three weeks have seen an abundance of strong teenage performances on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

Lilli Tagger, 17, reached the final round of Australian Open qualifying on her Grand Slam debut, then claimed her biggest title to date at the Fujairah ITF W100 without dropping a set. The Austrian -- the reigning Roland Garros junior champion and a finalist in Jiujiang last year -- leaps 27 places to No. 128, a new career high.

Alina Korneeva's career has been beset by injury ever since she defeated Mirra Andreeva in the 2023 Australian Open junior final. The 18-year-old is on the right track again after an eight-match winning streak encompassing the Manama ITF W75 title and Fujairah ITF W100 semifinals -- she's back up 55 spots to No. 157.

Elizara Yaneva, 18, reached her second ITF final of the year already at last week's Porto W75. The Bulgarian is up 59 places to No. 260, entering the Top 300 for the first time.

Akasha Urhobo, 19, was the only player to defeat Bianca Andreescu in Florida last month. The American notched that win en route to the Weston W35 title, and she's up 33 places to No. 304 as a result.

Wimbledon junior champion Mia Pohankova, 17, claimed the second ITF W75 title of her career in Leszno two weeks ago. The Slovak, who also made the Chennai quarterfinals on her WTA main-draw debut last October, soars 164 spots to a new career high of No. 364.

Kristina Liutova, 16, qualified and reached the San Diego ITF W100 quarterfinals last week, notching a first-round win over fellow 16-year-old Julieta Pareja. Liutova is up 124 places to a new career high of No. 594, and is the second-highest ranked 2010-born player behind Jana Kovackova at No. 567.

Other notable rankings movements

Elvina Kalieva, +53 to No. 154: The 23-year-old American reached the final round of Australian Open qualifying, then claimed her first ITF W100 title last week in San Diego, and soars to a new career high.

Carol Young Suh Lee, +37 to No. 173: This time last year, Georgia Tech University graduate Lee was unranked. The Northern Mariana Islands-born American compiled a 77-20 record in 2025 and then, in her Grand Slam debut last month, made the final round of Australian Open qualifying. The 24-year-old backed that up by reaching the Manama ITF W75 semifinals and Fujairah ITF W100 quarterfinals, and makes her Top 200 debut as a result.

Mary Stoiana, +29 to No. 193: Texas A&M alumna Stoiana also enters the Top 200 for the first time after the 22-year-old American reached the second round of Australian Open qualifying and the San Diego ITF W100 semifinals.

Fiona Ferro, +88 to No. 281: Former No. 39 Ferro made the second round of Australian Open qualifying, then qualified and reached the Manama ITF W75 final.

Ayla Aksu, +114 to No. 308: Türkiye's Aksu won the biggest title of her career at the age of 29 in last week's Porto ITF W75. Aksu, who reached a career high of No. 214 in 2017, had not previously won a trophy above W35 level, but did not drop a set in Porto from qualifying through to the title.

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