Eight WTA players will have a shot at No.1 at the 2017 U.S. Open, and the pressure will be on for current No.1 Karolina Pliskova. The Czech will have to reach the final at Flushing Meadows for the second straight year in order to have any chance of retaining the No.1 ranking.
Even if current World No.2 Simona Halep—currently just five points behind Pliskova—loses her first round match in New York, she’d finish the week ahead of Pliskova if the Czech does not take a place in the title match.
Halep has lost three times in matches where she would have become No.1 had she won in the last three months, including Sunday's final loss at Cincinnati.
But Halep isn't the only one with a shot at becoming the 24th No.1 in WTA history. Six other players—Garbiñe Muguruza, Elina Svitolina, Caroline Wozniacki, Johanna Konta, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Venus Williams—each have a chance to climb to No.1 depending on their own results and the results of the others.
It will make for an interesting first week, and potentially second week, in New York if the aforementioned eight players all manage to stay in the hunt for the 2017 U.S. Open title and the No.1 ranking.
Note: These are not official WTA projections, but appear to be correct. We’ll surely be hearing more from the WTA in the coming days on this exciting situation.
In other ranking news, Garbiñe Muguruza has climbed three spots to No.3 on the strength of her Cincinnati title run, while Angelique Kerber drops from No.3 to No.6.
The Spaniard also climbs to the top of the Race to Singapore Leaderboard this week.
American Sloane Stephens climbed 67 spots from 151 to No.84 in the world in just her fourth week back on the tour after returning from a year hiatus due to a foot injury and related surgery.
Ashleigh Barty (from 48 to 42), Julia Goerges (from 37 to 32) and Camila Giorgi (from 82 to 69) also got substantial rankings bumps from good performances at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.
For Race to Singapore Standings, see video above.