Iga Swiatek's reign as world number one in women's tennis was ended by Aryna Sabalenka on Monday (21.10) due to a highly controversial penalty being applied.
Swiatek's final week at No. 1 was her 50th consecutive week at the top of the rankings, making the 23-year-old just the seventh woman in history to hold the world's best female player ranking for 50 or more weeks.
Sabalenka briefly overtook Swiatek after the 2023 US Open, but the Pole regained her No. 1 ranking after a win at the WTA Finals, including a semi-final against the Belarusian.
It looks like Swiatek will finish 2024 as world No. 1 again ahead of the North American hard-court season, having built up a significant points lead over Sabalenka, who was No. 3 behind Coco Gauff at the time.
Sabalenka's decision to skip the Olympics, however, proved to be a wise one. After warm-up matches at the Citi Open and Canadian Open, she won the Cincinnati Open and her first US Open title - beating Jessica Pegula in both finals.
Swiatek, for his part, has not played in any tournaments this season in Asia, after parting ways with long-time coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. Naomi Osaka's former coach, Wim Fissette, was hired as Wiktorowski's replacement.
The four-time French Open champion's absence from Asia gave Sabalenka the perfect opportunity to further close the gap, which she did by beating Zheng Qinwen in the Wuhan Open final.
Sabalenka's success in Wuhan means she is all but certain to overtake Swiatek in two weeks' time, as the Pole had her points deducted from her at last year's WTA Finals.
Neither Swiatek nor Sabalenka will play any other tournaments before the WTA Finals.
But Sabalenka was declared the winner this week because of the controversial WTA regulations regarding mandatory WTA-500 tournaments.
WTA rules state that top players must play at least six WTA-500 events during the season. Otherwise, they face penalties such as losing points from events they have played in during the year.
No women's player has met that requirement this year. Swiatek has played just two events at the United Cup and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, while Sabalenka has played in the Brisbane International, Belin Open, Citi Open and Stuttgart.
Both players were penalised by having their points from those tournaments revoked. Sabalenka's defeat in the second round of the Dubai Championships meant she lost just 10 points.
Unfortunately for Swiatek, she lost 120 points in the fourth round of the Miami Open. That left her with 9,665 points to Sabalenka's 9,706, allowing this year's US Open champion to move up to No. 1.
Swiatek has expressed her distaste for the mandatory WTA-500 tournaments and the tennis calendar in general, and losing her world No. 1 ranking two weeks early because of the rule will likely add to her frustration.
