Rybakina Beats Putintseva in Tokyo to Clinch Year-End World Number One

Elena Rybakina beat fellow Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 6-3 in the second round of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Thursday, and the win secures the WTA year-end world number one ranking for the first time in her career. The result settles the season race with more than a week to spare before the WTA Finals. World number two Aryna Sabalenka can no longer catch her, no matter what happens in Tokyo or at the Finals.

Seventy minutes without dropping serve

Rybakina, the top seed at the WTA 500 event, received a bye into the last 16 at the Ariake Coliseum and was in control from the start under the closed roof. She did not drop serve in the 70-minute match. She saved the only break point she faced, in the final game, and closed out the win with her sixth ace of the day. She landed 63 percent of her first serves and lost only 10 points behind that shot. Putintseva produced flashes of her usual craft, with deft passes and drop shots in the second set, but Rybakina kept her at bay with steady serving and early strikes.

"It's always difficult matches against Yulia," Rybakina said in her on-court interview. "I was ready for longer rallies. She plays a lot of drop shots and changing the rhythm, so I was happy I stayed focused, stayed aggressive and a lot of things worked for me today." She added that the closed roof helped her: "I like to play in these kind of conditions. The ball is flying a bit faster, generally I think the conditions suit me really well."

A season with two Grand Slam titles

The 27-year-old has won the Australian Open and the US Open this year, taking her Grand Slam tally to three after her Wimbledon title in 2022. She rose to world number one for the first time on the way to the US Open title in September, and she arrived in Tokyo needing one more win this year to make the year-end ranking certain. Thursday's win extends her winning streak to five matches. Last week she defended her title at the Ningbo Open in China, her tour-leading fourth title of the season and her first as world number one. That run followed a short dip in form: she lost her opening match in Beijing after the US Open and missed the Wuhan Open with a leg injury.

Fernandez next, then the Finals

In the quarterfinals Rybakina faces Leylah Fernandez in a rematch of the Ningbo final, which she won 6-2, 6-2. Fernandez beat Elise Mertens 6-2, 7-6(8) on Thursday, saving two set points in the tiebreak. Rybakina leads their head-to-head series 4-2 and has won the last three meetings. She is chasing a 16th career title in Tokyo. After that she heads to Indian Wells, California, where the WTA Finals run from November 8 to 15 with the top eight players of the season. The year-end number one finish is her fourth straight top-five finish: she ended 2023 and 2024 at number three and 2025 at number five. The win over Putintseva also settled an old rivalry. Rybakina lost their first two meetings, at Rome in 2020 and Indian Wells in 2021, and now leads the series 3-2.