Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka and runner-up Jennifer Brady occupy the top two spots on the Porsche Race to Shenzhen Leaderboard following their success at the Australian Open.
Osaka secured the top spot on the Leaderboard with her fourth career Grand Slam title. Osaka reached the semifinal at the Gippsland Trophy, a WTA 500 event staged in Melbourne, prior to her title run.
Brady earned 1,300 Race points by advancing to the Australian Open final. She started the season at Abu Dhabi (first-round loss) and advanced to the semifinal at the Grampians Trophy, where she earned 185 Race points, bringing her total to 1,486.
Australian Open semifinalists, Serena Williams and Karolina Muchova, occupy the No.3 and No.4 positions on the Leaderboard.
Williams, 39, started her 2021 season by advancing to the semifinals at the Yarra Valley Classic, a WTA 500 tournament staged in Melbourne. She withdrew prior to her semifinal match against World No.1 Ashleigh Barty, allowing her time to recover from a right shoulder injury ahead of the Australian Open. Williams went on to reach the semifinals at the first Slam of the season, a run that included back-to-back matches against Top 10 ranked opponents, defeating No.7 ranked Aryna Sabalenka and No.2 ranked Simona Halep, before falling short in the semifinals against Osaka.
Karolina Muchova, 24, made her Grand Slam semifinal debut at the Australian Open pushing her to No.4 on the Leaderboard, making the climb from No.18.
Barty won her first eight matches of 2021 by capturing the title at the Yarra Valley Classic and reaching the quarterfinal stage of the Australian Open. As a result, Barty sits at No.5 in the latest Leaderboard.
After capturing the title at Abu Dhabi and advancing to the Round of 16 at the Australian Open, Arnya Sabalenka, moved up to at No.6. Elise Mertens and Garbine Muguzua round out the Top 8.
Simona Halep sits at No.9 and Veronika Kudermetova holds the No.10 spot.
The PRTS Leaderboard includes points earned during the 2021 season at Grand Slams, WTA 1000s, WTA 500s and WTA 250s. The top eight players on the Leaderboard will qualify for the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen.
