Rybakina is world No. 1 for a sixth week and wants to finish the season on top

In the WTA rankings update of 19 October, Elena Rybakina remained world No. 1 for a sixth consecutive week. She has 9,196 points: this week the 500 points for last year's Ningbo title came off. Aryna Sabalenka stays second with 7,550 points, a gap of 1,646 points; Mirra Andreeva is third (6,306). At her pre-tournament press conference in Ningbo, where she is defending the title, Rybakina said that right now it is important for her to try to finish the year as No. 1 and push for a couple more weeks: the season has been successful but long, so she is focusing on her health and managing fitness and matches. There have been no official updates since then on the foot injury that forced her out of the Wuhan Open. In Ningbo, Rybakina is the top seed and starts in the second round: her opponent will be decided on 20 October in the match between Cristina Bucsa and Polina Kudermetova.