Arina Sobolenko will remove Iga Swiatek from the first place in the world ranking

At the end of the US Open, the first week of which ended in New York, the leader in the ranking of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) will change. Instead of last year’s winner of this tournament, Igi Swiatek, Arina Sabolenko will rise to the top position, who will become the second Belarusian first racket of the world after Victoria Azarenka. This became clear after the Polish tennis player could not reach the 1/4 finals, losing to Elena Ostapenko from Latvia in three games.

The fact that on Sunday evening a serious danger loomed over the leadership of Iga Sventek in the WTA classification was indicated by the statistics of her relationship with Elena Ostapenko. In three matches played since 2019, the Latvian tennis player has won three victories. And of course, it was highly symbolic that Ostapenko was the last opponent to beat Iga Šwiętek, before the polka’s magnificent 37-match unbeaten streak, which allowed her to first become the first racket of the world, and then organize a giant lead over her pursuers. That game took place in Dubai in February last year and consisted of three sets.

The same thing happened in New York right now. Having given the first set, Ostapenko then equalized the situation, and after that did not leave last year’s champion any chance. In the third installment, which ended with a score of 6:1, she gave only eleven points, that is, she completely broke the resistance of Sventek.

“Iga likes to have a certain amount of time before he throws his punch. Therefore, she does not like to play against opponents who quickly return the ball to her half of the court. And when I play aggressively, she starts having problems, ”Ostapenko herself formulated the quintessence of what happened in the Arthur Ashe arena.

More precisely, perhaps, you can not say. It is no coincidence that this season Swiatek lost three times to last year’s Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and has mixed statistics against Arina Sobolenko and Jessica Pegula (in both cases, the score is 5:3 in favor of the polka). They certainly have a different style of play, but there is something in common – a commitment to total aggression. And the more subtle Shventek, who needs some preparation to prepare her attacks during the draws, meeting with them often simply does not have time to turn around.

This, of course, does not mean that from now on women’s tennis will be dominated exclusively by strength and athleticism. It is no coincidence that Schwentek was replaced in the first place by the Australian Ashleigh Barty, who, having about the same modest physical data, was no longer distinguished by speed, but by universalism. And before her, the rating was headed by the Romanian Simona Halep, who, due to perseverance, repeatedly outplayed the more physically gifted Japanese Naomi Osaka.

And in general, almost the entire history of women’s tennis is, to one degree or another, a serial epic of the confrontation between speed and patience, athleticism and game intelligence.

Suffice it to recall the rivalry between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, Steffi Graf and Aranci Sanchez-Vicario, the Williams sisters and Martina Hingis. At the moment, Swiatek, having a great talent, but still a rather limited set of trump cards, squeezed the maximum out of herself.

Be that as it may, 75 weeks of being a polka in the first place is a wonderful achievement. According to this indicator, she is in tenth place in history, ahead of many famous predecessors, in particular, the same Halep (64 weeks), Osaka (25) and Victoria Azarenka (51), who first climbed to the top in January 2012. Sobolenko was then only 13 years old, she did not even start playing junior tournaments of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), although to some extent we can talk about the continuity of generations. The appearance in Belarus of such a tennis celebrity as Azarenka could not but affect the development of Sobolenko. In addition, until relatively recently, they played together for the national team.

Comparing these tennis players, it is impossible not to notice that they are in many ways similar both in terms of their bright temperament, which can be difficult to curb, and in terms of the content of the game. Their element is not defense, but attack, although Azarenka, who is clearly inferior to Sobolenko in the speed of the first serve, at the peak of her career was somewhat more stable on the back line and, largely due to this, often outplayed one of her most principled rivals – Maria Sharapova.

It’s too early to talk about how long Sobolenko’s stay in the first place will be. So far, she is ahead of Schwentek in the rankings not very much, although much will depend on the results of the US Open.

In any case, it will be very difficult for other tennis players to interfere in their struggle until the end of this season. Swiatek has already scored a little less than 7,000 points this year, and Sobolenko a little more. Meanwhile, Rybakina, who stopped in New York in the 1/32 finals, is about 1500 points behind them, and the rest are even further behind.

Evgeny Fedyakov