Aryna Sabalenka’s inconsistent form continued with an opening match loss at the 2026 Wuhan Open, but how has the result affected the WTA Rankings?
World No 2 Sabalenka was upset 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) by 31st-ranked Ann Li in the second round at the WTA 1000 event on Monday.
Sabalenka was the top seed in Wuhan in the absence of world No 1 Elena Rybakina, and she received a first round bye.
The four-time Grand Slam champion looked close to claiming a decisive victory when she led by a set and a break at 6-4, 4-2, but she lost the next five games.
The Belarusian star then saved seven match points as she battled back from 2-5 down in the third set, only to narrowly lose in a tiebreak.
Sabalenka has now lost three of her last four matches, having fallen in the third round at the China Open earlier this month after her US Open final defeat in September.
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At the start of the Wuhan Open, Sabalenka was second in the WTA Rankings with 7,550 points, which left her 2,146 points adrift of Rybakina and 1,179 points clear of world No 3 Mirra Andreeva.
Sabalenka is set to remain on the same amount of points after her second round exit in Wuhan.
The 27-year-old is now 1,647 points behind Rybakina as the Kazakh has dropped 500 points from the 2025 Wuhan Open, while she is not competing at this year’s event.
Andreeva still has 6,371 points as she chose not to play in Wuhan after reaching the China Open final last week.
This means that Sabalenka still holds the same lead over Andreeva, but her failure to increase her points total in Wuhan could see her caught by the Russian before the end of 2026.
Sabalenka is second in the WTA Race to Indian Wells — the yearly ranking system — with 6,560 points.
Andreeva is third in the Race with 6,371 points, which means she has just 189 points to make up to catch Sabalenka.
