Elena Rybakina won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix for her third victory of the season. Despite maintaining her No.4 spot in the rankings on the Hologic WTA Tour, she managed to narrow the gap with No.3 Coco Gauff to 965 points.

This week presents an opportunity for Rybakina in Madrid to further tighten this margin. Last year, she was eliminated in her first match (following a first-round bye) and accrued only 10 points.

Here are some of the other storylines following a busy week on tour, which included the 500-level Stuttgart event, a WTA 250 in Rouen, France and a WTA 125 in Oeiras, Portugal. 

Champions Reel: How Elena Rybakina won Stuttgart 2024

Raducanu climbs more than 80 spots

In 2023, the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix marked Emma Raducanu's last tournament before undergoing multiple wrist and ankle surgeries, sidelining her for over eight months.

Twelve months on, the former US Open champion delivered the best week of her comeback, at the WTA 500 event in Stuttgart. Raducanu notched straight-sets wins against Angelique Kerber and Linda Noskova to reach the quarterfinals, where she fell in two tightly contested sets to World No.1 Iga Swiatek.

Following Raducanu's pair of victories in last year's Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers, the run marked the first time she had won four consecutive matches since her US Open victory in 2021. The 21-year-old vaults 82 places in this week's WTA rankings from No.303 to No.221. Perhaps more importantly, she has no points to defend for the rest of the year.

Swiatek notches 100th week in the top spot

This week, World No.1 Iga Swiatek becomes the ninth player to tally 100 weeks at the summit of the rankings since they were instituted in 1975. Of those nine, she is the fifth youngest player to hit the mark at 22 years and 326 days, behind Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Stefanie Graf and Chris Evert. Swiatek will reach the milestone 749 days after first ascending to World No.1 -- the fourth-quickest player to reach 100 weeks following Graf, Evert and Seles.

More from Swiatek's milestone:

Swiatek passed Lindsay Davenport's total of 98 weeks at No.1 last week. Just ahead of her in the all-time list of time spent at No.1 is Justine Henin, who tallied 117 weeks overall. Beyond Henin are Ashleigh Barty (121 weeks), Seles (178 weeks), Hingis (209 weeks), Evert (260 weeks), Serena Williams (319 weeks), Martina Navratilova (332 weeks) and Graf (377 weeks).

The 75 straight weeks Swiatek spent at No.1 between April 2022 and September 2023 is the 12th longest streak of consecutive weeks in the top spot in history. She is currently one-third of the way to repeating that, with an active streak of 25 weeks.

Kostyuk, Paolini reach new career highs; Riera cracks Top 100

Two more Stuttgart standouts hit new career highs this week. Marta Kostyuk continued to show that she has become a consistent top-level force in 2024 by reaching her second WTA 500 final of the year (following San Diego). The Ukrainian climbs another five places from No.26 to a new peak of No.21.

Kostyuk's highlights this season also include runs to the Australian Open quarterfinals and Indian Wells semifinals. Having lost her first 14 encounters with Top 10 players, the 21-year-old has now won seven of her past 11 dating back to Wimbledon last year. She added three such wins to her tally in Stuttgart, defeating Zheng Qinwen, Coco Gauff and Marketa Vondrousova.

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Meanwhile, Dubai champion Jasmine Paolini posted her fourth career Top 10 win over Ons Jabeur in Stuttgart to reach her second quarterfinal of 2024. The Italian moves up one place to a new career high of No.13.

This time last year, Julia Riera was ranked No.252 and had yet to compete in a WTA main draw. On her debut in Rabat last year, she went all the way to the semifinals. Last week, the 21-year-old lifted her biggest trophy to date, at the Chiasso ITF W75, coming from a set down in three out of five matches. As a result, she makes her Top 100 debut, climbing 18 places from No.112 to No.94.

Riera is the second Argentinian this year to break the Top 100 following Maria Lourdes Carle in March.

Other notable rankings movements

Marketa Vondrousova (+1, from No.8 to No.7): Vondrousova defeated Aryna Sabalenka in Stuttgart to reach her first semifinal since winning Wimbledon last year.

Sloane Stephens (+6, from No.39 to No.33): The former US Open champion claimed her eighth career title, and first on red clay, last week at the Rouen WTA 250 event.

Champions Reel: How Sloane Stephens won Rouen 2024

Magda Linette (+12, from No.60 to No.48): Linette reached her second final in the past seven months, sixth overall and first on clay in Rouen, and returns to the Top 50 for the first time since February.

Anna Bondar (+13, from No.108 to No.95): Back-to-back ITF W75 finals in Bellinzona and Chiasso over the past two weeks have boosted the former No.50 back into the Top 100 for the first time since last May.

Suzan Lamens (+29, from No.163 to No.134): Last May, Lamens was ranked No.305. Now, the 24-year-old Dutchwoman is at a career high after winning her first WTA 125 title in Oeiras last week, defeating Clara Tauson in the final. It was Lamens's second career milestone in Oeiras in as many weeks. Two weeks ago, she defeated Jelena Ostapenko in Billie Jean King Cup Group I action at the same venue, her first Top 10 win.

Veronika Erjavec (+34, from No.203 to No.169): The 24-year-old won an all-Slovenian final on home soil over Polona Hercog at last week's Koper ITF W75 and climbs to a new career high.

Polona Hercog (+23, from No.200 to No.177): Former No.35 Hercog's run to the Koper ITF W75 final boosts the 33-year-old to her highest ranking since May 2022.

Lois Boisson (+14, from No.205 to No.191): Fresh off three tournament victories in a row, the 20-year-old Frenchwoman extended her winning streak to 18 by reaching the Chiasso ITF W75 semifinals, before being halted by Bondar. Boisson enters the Top 200 for the first time.

Lanlana Tararudee (+27, from No.253 to No.226): The 19-year-old Thai won her second ITF title of the year at the Shenzhen W50 without dropping a set last week, and reaches a new career high.

Kristina Mladenovic (+24, from No.252 to No.228): The former World No.10 reached the Oeiras WTA 125 semifinals last week -- her deepest run at this level or above since making the 2021 Seoul WTA 125 final.

Anastasiya Soboleva (+29, from No.300 to No.271): Over the past three weeks, Soboleva put together an 11-match winning streak, claiming consecutive ITF W35 titles in Santa Margherita di Pula before reaching the second round at the Koper ITF W75. The 19-year-old Ukrainian climbs to a new career high.

Sayaka Ishii (+42, from No.368 to No.322): Former junior No.5 Ishii won her first pro title two weeks ago at the Osaka ITF W35. The Japanese 18-year-old rises to a new career high.

Tereza Valentova (+54, from No.399 to No.345): Last year's US Open junior finalist remains unbeaten at pro level in 2024. Valentova, 17, claimed her fourth title in as many tournaments at the Sharm el Sheikh ITF W35 two weeks ago. Having started the year at No.690, the Czech teenager is now at another new career high. She is the fourth-highest ranked player born in 2007 following Mirra Andreeva, Brenda Fruhvirtova and Alina Korneeva.

Akasha Urhobo (+77, from No.641 to No.564): The American 17-year-old reached her first pro final two weeks ago at the Boca Raton ITF W35.

Wang Qiang (+279, from No.1106 to No.827): Former No.12 Wang returned to action after a 16-month layoff in Hua Hin in January. Over the past two weeks, she continued her comeback at two Shenzhen ITF W50 events, reaching the quarterfinals a fortnight ago and the semifinals last week.