After years of knocking on the door, Elena Rybakina has found her way to the very top of the rankings for the first time in her career in 2026.

In a season where many of the WTA Tour’s top stars have struggled for consistency, Rybakina‘s two Grand Slam titles have seen her leapfrog former number one Aryna Sabalenka to clinch the top spot, and she now leads the Belarusian by nearly 2000 points.

The Kazakh star, who didn’t advance past the fourth round of a major last season, won titles at the Australian Open and the US Open this year, as well as a WTA 500 crown in Stuttgart. Rybakina also made finals at WTA 1000 events in Indian Wells and Toronto.

Elena Rybakina’s decision to play in Tokyo could cost her

With the season coming to a close, Rybakina now has the chance to achieve a feat no woman has managed since Serena Williams in 2014. The 27-year-old can become the first player in 12 years to win consecutive titles at the WTA Finals.

Williams was the last to go back-to-back at the prestigious year-end tournament, doing so with a three-peat from 2012 to 2014. Since then, not only has nobody defended the WTA Finals titles, but there has been a different winner each and every season.

Rybakina clinched her first WTA Finals title last season by beating Sabalenka in the final, and she will enter this year’s edition of the event as the favourite, but the field in Indian Wells is stacked. Every player in the 2026 WTA Finals lineup has either won a Grand Slam or a WTA 1000 title in 2026.

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The eight players competing are Rybakina, Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Elina Svitolina, Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova. While many will have Rybakina going all the way, she is putting her chances in jeopardy with the amount of tennis she is playing at the moment.

Rybakina is currently in action at the Ningbo Open, and she recently announced she will appear at the final WTA 500 event of the season: the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. If Rybakina reaches the final in Tokyo, she will have just six days to prepare for the WTA Finals, which begins on November 8.

The Pan Pacific Open marks another chance for Rybakina to secure year-end number one status. She will have a great chance to do just that after Pegula, Iga Swiatek, Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk all withdrew from the Tokyo event, meaning Rybakina is the only top-ten player on the entry list.

Elena Rybakina’s previous results at the Pan Pacific Open

Rybakina has made two appearances at the Pan Pacific Open over the years, the first of which came back in 2022. That year, she was comfortably beaten in her opening match by Russian player Liudmila Samsonova, losing in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4.

Three years later Rybakina returned to Tokyo, this time seeded second, and reached the semifinals of the event. She beat Leylah Fernandez and Victoria Mboko en route to the final four, where she was set to face Linda Noskova, but withdrew.

Rybakina’s semifinal finish last year means she is defending 195 WTA points this time around.