The defending French Open champion, Coco Gauff, bowed out to the homegrown Victoria Mboko in straight sets, 1-6, 4-6, in the round of 16 at the Canadian Open. The American’s early exit meant that she will add 120 points to her existing WTA tally of 7669 points to reach an annual total of 7789 ranking points thus far.
From being seeded as the No.8 at the All England Championships in late June to rising to World No.3, following her triumphant run at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Iga Swiatek has been thrust back in the spotlight of tennis following a relatively quiet first half of the year.
However, since then, the Polish multiple-time Grand Slam winner has had the chance to leapfrog Gauff to second place in the world rankings at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers in Montreal.
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With World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka opting to skip out on the Canadian Open and enjoy some time off after her disappointing loss to Amanda Anisimova in the semifinals of Wimbledon, Coco Gauff entered the tournament as the top seed, with the reigning Wimbledon champion coming in at second.
With comfortable wins in the opening two rounds against Guo Hanyu and Eva Lys without dropping a set, Swiatek set up a round-of-16 clash against 16th seed Clara Tauson. With Gauff having been eliminated at this stage, any further progress would have meant that the Pole would gain a significant advantage over her rival in terms of rankings and would be closing in on the 856-point deficit between the two, with the US Open approaching fast.
Triumph in Montreal would have seen the Pole go past Gauff in the rankings with a tally of 7813 points. This would have meant Swiatek would have held the rank and the advantage going into Cincinnati, and all she needed to do then was perform better than Coco Gauff to be seeded second at the US Open.
However, a shock loss in straight sets meant that Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek would be awarded the same number of ranking points (120) for their performances at the Canadian Open, and that the gap would extend into the Cincinnati Open, the last WTA 1000 tournament before the US Open.
Swiatek's fourth-round exit in Montreal sees her receive 120 points and reach a total of 6933 ranking points for the year, 856 points behind Gauff's updated total of 7789 points.
The significant point difference, combined with the lack of time to narrow it down, leaves Swiatek fighting a seemingly improbable task of usurping Gauff of the World No.2 spot ahead of the Big Apple Slam.
The only scenario where Iga Swiatek can still leapfrog Coco Gauff in the world rankings is if she emerges as the victor at the Cincinnati Open, and if Coco is eliminated in or before the quarterfinals.
The reigning Wimbledon champion will be hoping things work out in her favor in Cincinnati after a disappointing outing in the City of Saints.
Coco Gauff needs to only make the semifinals of the Cincinnati Open to assure her No.2 seed at the US Open
Following a disappointing outing at the National Bank Open in Montreal, Canada, where the top seed Coco Gauff crashed out in the fourth round in straight sets to Canadian Victoria Mboko, the American's No.2 rank remains under threat going into the US Open.
The French Open winner's only saving grace remains that her closest competitor, World No.3 and Wimbledon champion, Iga Swiatek, also lost in the round of 16 in Montreal, meaning that both players were awarded the same number of points, and therefore preserving her 856-point lead with only the Cincinnati Open to play.
Coco will definitely be looking to go all out to protect her spot going into her home Major, and where she won in 2023 as a teenager, the first since Serena Williams in 1999.
From the American's point of view, all she needs to do to secure her second seed at Flushing Meadows, independent of external results, is to reach the semifinals of the Cincinnati Open. Doing so would mean that even if Swiatek was to win the title, she would not be able to overturn the existing 856-point deficit.
