Elena Rybakina has one hand on the year-end No 1 trophy as she moved a step closer to the feat with her title run at the Ningbo Open while Leylah Fernandez and Katerina Siniakova enjoyed ranking boosts.

Following her shock early exit from the China Open, Rybakina bounced back in style as she successfully defended her Ningbo title, beating Fernandez in straight sets in the final to win the 15th title of her career.

She is now the outright holder for most WTA Tour singles trophies this year with four and her latest title has pushed her closer to the year-end No 1 honour with her lead over second-placed Aryna Sabalenka sitting at 1,951 points.

Rybakina can seal the deal at this week’s Pan Pacific Open.

The top seven in the WTA Rankings are unchanged as Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Elina Svitolina and Karolina Muchova were not in action last week.

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Iga Swiatek also didn’t feature as she withdrew from the Ningbo Open due to injury, but she moves up one place with Linda Noskova dropping to No 9.

There was one big change in the top 20 with Belinda Bencic dropping six places to No 20, resulting in the likes of Victoria Mbok, Amanda Anisimova, Naomi Osaka and Alex Eala moving up one place.

Fernandez is edging closer to a top-20 return as she jumped seven places to No 23 after finishing runner-up to Rybakina in Ningbo.

Siniakova was the other title winner last week as she lifted the Japan Open trophy after beating Ashlyn Krueger in the final. The Czech surges 37 places to No 49 while Krueger is up 11 spots to No 44.

Katie Boulter reached the semi-final in Tokyo before losing against Siniakova and she is +10 to No 48 to regain the British No 1 title from Sonay Kartal (No -3 to No 52).

There was some decent news for fellow Brit Emma Raducanu as the 2021 US Open winner is up five places to No 104 despite her inactivity with her boost coming thanks to players around her dropping.

There are only two more weeks left on the regular WTA Tour calendar with the Pan Pacific Open and Guangzhou Open scheduled for this week before the Hong Kong Open and Chennai Open take place in the final week of the 2026 campaign.

After that, the top eight players will take part in the season-ending WTA Finals in Indian Wells.

WTA Top 20

1. Elena Rybakina Kazakhstan – 9,501
2. Aryna Sabalenka – 7,550
3. Mirra Andreeva – 6,306
4. Jessica Pegula United States – 6,225
5. Coco Gauff United States – 5,973
6. Elina Svitolina Ukraine – 5,229
7. Karolina Muchova Czechia – 4,725
8. Iga Swiatek Poland – 4,389 (+1)
9. Linda Noskova Czechia – 4,353 (-1)
10. Marta Kostyuk Ukraine – 3,920
11. Maja Chwalinksa Poland – 3,016
12. Iva Jovic United States – 2,941
13. Diana Shnaider – 2,798
14. Elise Mertens Belgium – 2,540 (+1)
15. Victoria Mboko Canada – 2,393 (+1)
16. Sorana Cirstea Romania – 2,386 (+1)
17. Amanda Anisimova United States – 2,363 (+1)
18. Naomi Osaka Japan – 2,287 (+1)
19. Alex Eala Philippines – 2,241 (-1)
20. Belinda Bencic Switzerland – 2,222 (-6)