PARIS: French Open champion Iga Swiatek remained firmly at the head of the WTA rankings released on Monday, in spite of her shock exit in her home Poland Open last week. Swiatek had not lost on clay in over a year before going down 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 to the French player Caroline Garcia in the quarter-finals in Warsaw.

The 21-year-old Pole, who has held the top spot since the surprise retirement of Australian Ashleigh Barty at the end of March, remains more than 4,000 points ahead of number two Anett Kontaveit. With no changes at all in the top 20, the biggest jump was by Garcia whose victory over Ana Bogdan in the final in Warsaw took her from 45th to number 32. It is her best ranking since October 2019 but remains well short of her performances in 2018 when she reached fourth in the world.

WTA top 10: (1) Iga Swiatek (POL) 8,396 pts; (2) Anett Kontaveit (EST) 4,476; (3) Maria Sakkari (GRE) 4,190; (4) Paula Badosa (ESP) 4,030; (5) Ons Jabeur (TUN) 4,010; (6) Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 3,267; (7) Jessica Pegula (USA) 3,087; (8) Garbine Muguruza (ESP) 2,886; (9) Danielle Collins (USA) 2,743; (10) Emma Raducanu (GBR) 2,717.

ATP rankings

Meanwhile, Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz climbed another place to number 4 in the ATP world ranking on Monday, just behind his legendary compatriot Rafael Nadal. In spite of losing in three sets on Sunday to Jannik Sinner on the clay final in Umag, where he was defending champion, 19-year-old Alcaraz leapfrogs the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas who slips back to fifth. Sinner remains 10th in the rankings which are still dominated by the Russian Daniil Medvedev. Novak Djokovic moved up one place to sixth while Cameron Norrie also edged up one slot to 12th.

ATP top 20: (1) Daniil Medvedev 7,625 pts; (2) Alexander Zverev (GER) 6,850; (3) Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6,165; (4) Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) 5,035 (+1); (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 5,000 (-1); (6) Novak Djokovic (SRB) 4,770 (+1); (7) Casper Ruud (NOR) 4,685 (-1); (8) Andrey Rublev (RUS) 3,575; (9) Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 3,445; (10) Jannik Sinner (ITA) 3,395; (11) Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 3,015; (12) Cameron Norrie (GBR) 2,893 (+1); (13) Taylor Fritz (USA) 2,825 (-1); (14) Matteo Berrettini (ITA) 2,430; (15) Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 2,245; (16) Marin Cilic (CRO) 2,085; (17) Reilly Opelka (USA) 2,010; (18) Roberto Bautista-Agut (ESP) 1,850 (+2); (19) Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 1,730 (-1); (20) Gael Monfils (FRA) 1,615 (-1).