List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players explained

The WTA rankings are the Women's Tennis Association's (WTA) merit-based system for determining the rankings in women's tennis. The top-ranked singles player is the player who, over the previous 52 weeks, has garnered the most ranking points on the WTA Tour. Points are awarded based on how far a player advances in tournaments and the category of those tournaments. The WTA has used a computerized system for determining the rankings since November 3, 1975. Since 1975, 29 women have been ranked No. 1 in singles by the WTA, of which 15 have been year-end No. 1.

Iga Świątek is the current singles world No. 1.

WTA No. 1 ranked singles players

The rankings are sourced by the WTA Media Guide and the WTA website (which usually revises its rankings every Sunday night or Monday morning, except when tournament finals are postponed).^{[1] [2]}

No.	Player	Start date	End date	Weeks	Total
1				25	25
2				2	2
				113	138
3				26	26
				2	140
				4	30
				7	147
				10	40
				11	158
				31	71
4				2	2
				11	82
				19	21
				76	234
				2	84
				4	238
				156	240
				18	256
				2	242
				4	260
				90	332
5				186	186
6				21	21
				1	187
				1	22
				3	190
				91	113
				87	277
7				2	2
				1	278
				6	8
				5	283
				4	12
				9	292
				64	356
					177
				2	358
				1	359
					178
				18	377
8				80	80
9				17	17
				21	101
				5	22
				34	135
				5	27
				1	136
				1	28
				73	209
10				3	3
				10	38
				6	9
11				3	3
				5	14
				4	7
				3	17
				4	11
12				57	57
13				10	10
14				1	1
				2	12
				44	45
15				5	5
				44	82
16				1	1
				2	84
				6	7
				14	98
				7	19
				34	39
				11	56
				7	14
				61	117
				3	17
17				9	9
18				1	1
				3	12
				4	61
				17	18
				11	72
19				25	25
				2	74
				1	26
				49	123
20				18	18
				1	20
				49	67
21				19	19
				4	21
				32	51
				186	309
22				20	20
				7	316
				5	25
				3	319
				9	34
23				8	8
24				4	4
25				16	16
				4	71
				48	64
26				21	21
27				7	7
				4	25
				28	35
				20
				86	121
28				75	75
29				8	8
			Present

Weeks at No. 1

Total No. Player Weeks 1 377 2 332 3 319 4 260 5 209 6 178 7 Ashleigh Barty 121 8 117 9 Iga Świątek 10 98 11 71 12 64 13 51 14 39 15 34 16 26 17 25 18 21 Maria Sharapova 20 20 21 18 22 17 23 12 Ana Ivanovic 25 11 26 8 Aryna Sabalenka 28 4 29 2 Active players – current No. 1 in bold. Consecutive No. Player Weeks 1 186 Serena Williams 3 156 4 114 5 113 6 Steffi Graf 94 7 91 8 Martina Navratilova 90 9 Steffi Graf 87 10 80 11 Chris Evert 76 12 75 13 Martina Hingis 73 14 Monica Seles 64 15 61 16 Serena Williams 57 17 Serena Williams 49 Caroline Wozniacki 19 Simona Halep 48 20 Justine Henin 44 Lindsay Davenport Current streak in bold.

Weeks are updated automatically.^{[3] [4]}
The source for this through the week of January 2, 2012, is the 2012 WTA Tour Official Guide, page 177.

Weeks at No. 1 leaders timeline

Year span	Leader	Date achieved	Duration	Record
1975–1985	Chris Evert	3 November 1975		238
1985–1985	Martina Navratilova	27 May 1985		240
1985–1986	Chris Evert	24 June 1985		260
1986–1996	Martina Navratilova	31 March 1986		332
1996–Present	Steffi Graf	21 May 1996		377

No. 1 leaders timeline

Year-end No. 1 players

By year Year Player 1975 1976 Chris Evert 1977 Chris Evert 1978 1979 Martina Navratilova 1980 Chris Evert 1981 Chris Evert 1982 Martina Navratilova 1983 Martina Navratilova 1984 Martina Navratilova 1985 Martina Navratilova 1986 Martina Navratilova 1987 1988 Steffi Graf 1989 Steffi Graf 1990 Steffi Graf 1991 1992 Monica Seles 1993 Steffi Graf 1994 Steffi Graf 1995 Steffi Graf Monica Seles 1996 Steffi Graf 1997 1998 1999 Martina Hingis By year (continued) Year Player 2000 Martina Hingis 2001 Lindsay Davenport 2002 2003 2004 Lindsay Davenport 2005 Lindsay Davenport 2006 Justine Henin 2007 Justine Henin 2008 2009 Serena Williams 2010 2011 Caroline Wozniacki 2012 2013 Serena Williams 2014 Serena Williams 2015 Serena Williams 2016 2017 2018 Simona Halep 2019 2020 Ashleigh Barty 2021 Ashleigh Barty 2022 2023 Iga Świątek 2024

Per player

No. Total 8 Steffi Graf 7 Martina Navratilova 5 Chris Evert Serena Williams 4 Lindsay Davenport 3 / Monica Seles Martina Hingis Justine Henin Ashleigh Barty 2 Caroline Wozniacki Simona Halep Iga Świątek 1 Jelena Janković Victoria Azarenka Angelique Kerber No. Consecutive 5 Martina Navratilova 4 3 Chris Evert Serena Williams Ashleigh Barty 2 Martina Navratilova Chris Evert Monica Seles Martina Hingis Lindsay Davenport Justine Henin Caroline Wozniacki Simona Halep Iga Świątek

Players who became No. 1 without having won a Grand Slam

Player	First ranked No. 1	First Grand Slam final	First Grand Slam title
Kim Clijsters	August 11, 2003	2001 French Open (June 2001)
Amélie Mauresmo	September 13, 2004	1999 Australian Open (January 1999)
Jelena Janković	August 11, 2008	2008 US Open (September 2008)	None
Dinara Safina	April 20, 2009	2008 French Open (June 2008)	None
Caroline Wozniacki	October 11, 2010	2009 US Open (September 2009)
Karolína Plíšková	July 17, 2017	2016 US Open (September 2016)	None
Simona Halep	October 9, 2017	2014 French Open (June 2014)

Time span between first and last dates No. 1 was held

• Active players and age records indicated in bold.

Time span	Player	First held No. 1		Last held No. 1
		Date	Age	Date	Age
		Jul 8, 2002		May 14, 2017
		Nov 3, 1975		Nov 24, 1985
		Aug 17, 1987		Mar 30, 1997
		Jul 10, 1978		Aug 16, 1987
		Aug 11, 2003		Feb 20, 2011
		Oct 11, 2010		Feb 25, 2018
		Oct 12, 1998		Jan 29, 2006
		Aug 22, 2005		Jul 8, 2012
		Mar 11, 1991		Nov 24, 1996
		Oct 20, 2003		May 18, 2008
		Mar 31, 1997		Oct 14, 2001
		Jun 24, 2019		Apr 3, 2022
		Apr 4, 2022
		Sep 13, 2004		Nov 12, 2006
		Oct 9, 2017		Jan 27, 2019
		Jan 30, 2012		Feb 17, 2013
		Sep 12, 2016		Jul 16, 2017
		Oct 15, 2001		Jun 9, 2002
		Apr 7, 1980		Nov 17, 1980
		Jan 28, 2019		Sep 8, 2019
		Apr 20, 2009		Nov 1, 2009
		Aug 11, 2008		Feb 1, 2009
		Feb 25, 2002		Jul 7, 2002
		Feb 6, 1995		Jun 11, 1995
		Jun 9, 2008		Sep 7, 2008
		Jul 17, 2017		Sep 10, 2017
		-->	Sep 11, 2023		Nov 5, 2023
		Sep 11, 2017		Oct 8, 2017
		Apr 26, 1976		May 9, 1976

Weeks at No. 1 by decade

• Current No. 1 player indicated in italic.

1970s*

* — Starting November 1975

2020s

WTA rankings were frozen from March 23, 2020 to August 9, 2020.

• Stats are automatically updated on Mondays (UTC).

Weeks at No. 1 by country

• Current No. 1 player indicated in bold.

Weeks	Country	Players
1,123		Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Monica Seles*, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Venus Williams, Serena Williams
411		Steffi Graf, Angelique Kerber
209		Martina Hingis
143		Monica Seles*, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Janković
137		Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin
123		Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Ashleigh Barty
		Iga Świątek
71		Caroline Wozniacki
64		Simona Halep
51		Victoria Azarenka
47		Maria Sharapova, Dinara Safina
39		Amélie Mauresmo
25		Naomi Osaka
16		Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Garbiñe Muguruza
8		Karolína Plíšková

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2012 WTA Media Guide . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20121015020844/http://www.wtatennis.com/SEWTATour-Archive/Archive/MediaInfo/mediaguide2012.pdf . 2012-10-15.
2. Web site: WTA Singles Rankings . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140208041228/http://www.wtatennis.com/singles-rankings . 8 February 2014 . 2 March 2014.
3. Web site: WTA Press Center – Weeks at No. 1 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20121103160208/http://www.wtatennis.com/page/PressCentre/0,,12781,00.html . 2012-11-03.
4. Web site: WTA Notes & Netcords . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120117193840/http://www.wtatennis.com/page/NotesAndNetcords/0%2C%2C12781%2C00.html . 2012-01-17.