Rankings Watch: Gauff overtakes Sabalenka at No.2; Paolini into the Top 10

Iga Swiatek extended her lead as the World No.1, following another title-winning run at Roland Garros. In the latest edition of the PIF WTA Rankings, Swiatek remains at 11,695 points -- 3,707 more than anyone else.

Outside of Swiatek, the fallout from the French Open resulted in plenty of shakeups, none more so than Coco Gauff, who overtook Aryna Sabalenka's for the No.2 ranking. This past week, Gauff reached her third straight Grand Slam semifinal. How did she finally reach a new career high? Here is a snapshot of her progress starting last summer in which she began her torrid stretch ranked No.7 and left as a newly minted Grand Slam champion and World No.3, before hitting her career this past week in Paris.

Gauff's rise to No.2

A breakthrough in Cincinnati

Midway through the 2023 season, Gauff had yet to win a title above the WTA 250 level. That changed once the tour turned to the North American hard courts. After snagging the Citi Open title, her first at the WTA 500 level, Gauff captured the first WTA 1000 of her career, at the Western & Southern Open, where she posted her first career win over Swiatek. Gauff, 19 at the time, followed that up with a straight-sets win over French Open finalist Karolina Muchova in the final to become the tournament's youngest champion.

Topples Sabalenka to win the US Open

Gauff carried her Cincinnati momentum into the final Grand Slam of the season at the US Open. Wins over Mirra Andreeva, Elise Mertens, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Ostapenko and Muchova, she made her way into her first US Open final. After falling in a lopsided first set against Sabalenka, Gauff engineered a gritty comeback to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. She went on to extend that win streak to 16 matches at the China Open and qualified for her second consecutive WTA Finals.

Racking up the titles

Over the past year, Gauff has added four titles to her career haul of seven, with a championship at every tour-level event: 2023 US Open (Grand Slam), 2023 Western and Southern Open (WTA 1000), 2023 Citi Open (WTA 500) and 2024 Auckland (WTA 250). 

Grand Slam consistency

Gauff is the only player who has made the semifinals or better at the past three Grand Slams. That consistency was reflected at the biggest tournaments as well, where she posted semifinal results at three additional WTA 1000 tournaments: 2024 Internazionali BNL d'Italia, 2024 BNP Paribas Open, 2023 China Open. She was also a semifinalist at the WTA Finals in Cancun.

Paolini and Andreeva deliver 

Jasmine Paolini and Mirra Andreeva both delivered breakout performances from different points in their careers. Paolini, 28, reached her first Grand Slam final with wins against Bianca Andreescu, Elena Rybakina and Andreeva -- a result that backs up her first WTA 1000 title, in Dubai in February. Having been ranked No.71 last April, Paolini makes her Top 10 debut this week, jumping seven places from No.15 to No.7.

Paolini is the fifth Italian woman to crack the Top 10. Interestingly, all five were at least 25 years old when they entered it for the first time.

By contrast, the 17-year-old Andreeva became the youngest Grand Slam semifinalist since Martina Hingis at the 1999 US Open. It's been a little over a year since Andreeva announced herself by reaching the last 16 of Madrid and the third round of Roland Garros. In her sophomore year, she has exceeded those results.

Last April, Andreeva was ranked No.312. She started this year’s French Open at No.38 and leaves Paris as the World No.23.  

Second-week debuts boost Navarro, Danilovic and more

At Roland Garros, six players reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time. Emma Navarro returns to the Top 20, jumping six places to hit a new career high of No.18. Anastasia Potapova climbs five to No.36, Elisabetta Cocciaretto returns to the Top 50 with an eight-place boost to No.43 and Clara Tauson is up seven places to No.65.

Varvara Gracheva ousted Maria Sakkari in the first round, while Olga Danilovic took out Danielle Collins in the second round. Gracheva is up 17 places from No.88 to No.71, while Danilovic leaps 18 spots from No.125 to No.107.

WTA 125 champions Volynets, Todoni make moves

Last week, Katie Volynets and Anca Todoni both captured their first WTA 125 titles, in Makarska and Bari, respectively. Volynets, who also qualified and reached the second round of Roland Garros, leaps 31 places from No.108 to No.77. The 22-year-old American returns to the Top 100 for the first time since last May and is only three spots off the career high of No.74 she set in March of 2023.

This time last year, Todoni was ranked No.678. She made her WTA main-draw debut in February as a wild card in Cluj-Napoca, and in Bogota in April, she won her first tour-level match. She had never won a title above ITF W25 level before her run through the Bari draw last week, which included a semifinal upset of No.1 seed Nadia Podoroska -- a result that improved Todoni's record against Top 100 players to 5-1.

The big-hitting 19-year-old Romanian soars 43 places from No.179 to a new career high of No.136.

Elsewhere, Alison Van Uytvanck claimed the first significant grass-court title of 2024, at the Surbiton ITF W100, winning the trophy for a second time in three years after defeating former Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria in the final. Van Uytvanck was sidelined for most of 2023 with a back injury. This marks the biggest title of her comeback to date as she rockets 131 places from No.397 to No.266.

Back in 2017, Carson Branstine became the girls doubles champion at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros alongside Bianca Andreescu. The Canadian took the college route, playing for Texas A&M University and has been on a hot streak on the ITF World Tour in recent months. Branstine captured her biggest pro title to date at last week's Sumter ITF W75, improving her record since November to 44-5. The 23-year-old climbs 149 places from No.493 to No.344.

Spain's Leyre Romero Gormaz won last week's other ITF W75 title in Caserta, defeating former No.21 Jil Teichmann in the final. The 22-year-old gets a 31-place boost from No.216 to No.185, returning to the Top 200 for the first time since September.

Junior stars reach new career highs

The first all-Czech girls' Grand Slam final in history saw Tereza Valentova defeat Laura Samson for the Roland Garros title. Both delivered strong ITF performances three weeks ago ahead of the junior tournament, and the addition of those points pushes both teenagers to new career highs this week.

Valentova's run to the Annenheim ITF W35 final improved her pro record this year to 25-2, and the 17-year-old climbs 26 places to No.311. Samson, 16, won her third ITF W15 title of the year in Bol and improves 73 spots to No.646.

Mertens returns to doubles top spot

Despite falling in the second round of Roland Garros alongside Hsieh Su-Wei, Elise Mertens overtakes her doubles partner as World No.1 this week. Last year, Hsieh partnered Wang Xinyu to the Roland Garros title, whereas Mertens fell in the third round alongside Storm Hunter.

Mertens will embark on her ninth stint at No.1 and second of 2024. The Belgian held the top spot for seven weeks between January and March. She has spent 35 weeks in total at the summit.

Other notable rankings movements

Marta Kostyuk (+3, from No.20 to No.17): Kostyuk reaches a new career high after making the Roland Garros second round.

Sofia Kenin (+11, from No.56 to No.45): Kenin returns to the Top 50 for the first time since February after defeating Caroline Garcia to reach the Roland Garros third round.

Ana Bogdan (+15, from No.64 to No.49): Bogdan upset former Roland Garros finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach the third round in Paris and returns to the Top 50 for the first time since last July.

Paula Badosa (+21, from No.139 to No.118): Already sidelined for six months in 2023 with a back injury, Badosa has now reached the third round of both Grand Slams in 2024.

Chloe Paquet (+15, from No.136 to No.121): Paquet spent 20 consecutive weeks ranked between No.101 and No.110 in the summer of 2022 but was unable to crack the Top 100. Her first Grand Slam third-round run at Roland Garros has given the Frenchwoman another shot at that milestone over the coming months.

Amanda Anisimova (+41, from No.231 to No.190): The former No.21 reached the second round of Roland Garros and returns to the Top 200 for the first time since last July.

Harmony Tan (+33, from No.226 to No.193): The Frenchwoman famously ended Serena Williams' Wimbledon career in 2022 but received no points from her fourth-round run that year and was unable to exceed the career high of No.90 she set in April of 2022. Tan reached the Surbiton ITF W100 semifinals last week and returns to the Top 200 for the first time since March 2023.