Elena Rybakina just drove off with another Porsche Grand Prix title in Stuttgart after a dominant 7-5, 6-1 victory over Karolina Muchova, solidifying her grip on the world No. 2 ranking. At the No. 1 spot, it’s still Aryna Sabalenka, 2395 points ahead of the Kazakh. But if you ask Rybakina about the points chase, she simply doesn’t care to look at the math.
Elena Rybakina Ignores Rankings Points to Prioritize Upcoming Grand Slams
When asked by reporters at the post-tournament presser in Stuttgart about chasing Sabalenka for tour supremacy, the two-time Grand Slam champion delivered a grounded response.
“Well, I’m not really focusing on the points. I know my team is checking sometimes, but that’s not the goal. The most important for us, to be consistent and do well, because you can’t control how other players are gonna play. You just need to do your job as best as possible.”
“I think for now everything was working well, and we just try to continue now for the big tournaments ahead,” she added.
Rybakina has arguably been the more consistent player week to week in 2026, recently becoming the first woman on tour to reach 25 main-draw wins this season. Her season began with a massive victory over Sabalenka in a thrilling three-set Australian Open final (6-4, 4-6, 6-4), and Sabalenka answered back by defeating her in a tight Indian Wells final. The Belarusian also completed the rare “Sunshine Double” by winning both Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back.
However, Sabalenka enjoys the rivalry with the 26-year-old. “I really love playing finals against her(Rybakina) because it always means that it’s going to be a fight, it’s going to be a battle, and it’s going to be tough for each of us. That’s the beauty of our rivalry and I’m really enjoying it and even though I lost so many really painful finals against her, but still I managed to win so many, and yeah, I’m happy to have this kind of rivalry,” said the world No. 1 after the 2026 Australian Open.
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek, the former No. 1 and clay-court specialist, who used to be where Rybakina is now, has surprisingly faded away from the two-horse race into the chasing pack alongside No. 3 Coco Gauff, the defending French Open champion.
And while Rybakina is not into the points chase, Sabalenka loves to dominate.
“I always wanted to dominate the tour like Serena [Williams] did one day, like what Iga was able to do for so long,” said Sabalenka in a 2024 interview. Swiatek has had a 37-match win streak to start the 2022 WTA season, the longest on the WTA Tour in the 21st century.
After withdrawing from Stuttgart because of the injury she picked up in Miami, Sabalenka arrives at the Madrid Open as the defending champion, meaning she has 1,000 ranking points on the line that she must defend just to break even. Rybakina is only defending 85 points from last year.
