Elena Rybakina keeps closing in on the Top 5. By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday March 21, 2023

Elena Rybakina ticks off a new – and well-deserved – career-high ranking, while Aryna Sabalenka closes the gap on Iga Swiatek ever so slightly in this week's WTA rankings.

Rybakina, who would be ranked fifth if she was carrying the 2000 Wimbledon points she would have won in 2022 (had the tour allowed rankings points), is proving that she is an elite force on tour these days.

She rises from No.10 to No.7 thanks to her title at the BNP Paribas Open, where she became the first woman to ever win the title by defeating the No.1 and No.2-ranked players on tour.

CX: Lot of questions about what Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina would be ranked if Wimbledon hadn't been stripped of points in 2022

By my count she'd be No. 5 (instead of No. 7) behind Swiatek, Sabalenka, Jabeur & Pegula.#getty pic.twitter.com/601fcPWsFa

— Christopher Clarey 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 (@christophclarey) March 19, 2023

Sabalenka Inches Closer to Swiatek

Aryna Sabalenka, currently the World No.2, closes the gap between herself and Iga Swiatek to 3,235 points. The Belarusian talent will have another chance to gain on Swiatek this week, as the Pole, who pulled out with a rib injury, will drop 1,000 points from winning last year’s title.

Sabalenka, who list in the round of 16 last year, is defending only 10 points.

Also rising in the Top 20 in this week’s rankings are a pair of Czechs, Petra Kvitova and Barbora Krejcikova. Kvitova and Krejcikova each jump three spots to No.12 and No.13, respectively, while Croatia's Donna Vekic climbs three spots to No.20, making her return to the Top 20 for the first time since January of 2020.

Elsewhere in the ranking, 17-year-old Czech Linda Fruhvirtova rises three spots to make her Top 50 debut at No.50. The teen has had a solid start to 2023, reaching the second week at the Australian Open, and winning six of 11 matches on tour thus far.

Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk also reaches a career-high – at No.38 – as does Russia’s Varvara Gracheva, at No.54.

Gracheva jumped 12 spots thanks to a round of 16 run at Indian Wells.

The biggest jump inside the Top 100 was made by another Czech – Karolina Muchova – who powered up 21 spots to No.55 thanks to a quarterfinal run at Indian Wells. The former No.19 took eventual champion Elena Rybakina to three sets at Indian Wells.

The 22-time major champ has no regrets and is living in the present as he prepares for the clay-court season. By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday March 21, 2023

Speaking to CNN in Dubai, Novak Djokovic says he has no regrets about his decision to remain unvaccinated and the fact that he has missed Indian Wells and Miami for the second consecutive year, which has contributed to his drop in the rankings.

With Djokovic on the sidelines this month, Carlos Alcaraz won the title at Indian Wells, and the 22-time Grand Slam champion says the rising Spaniard deserves to hold the top spot.

“I congratulate Alcaraz,” he said. “He absolutely deserves to come back to No. 1.”

Novak Djokovic says he has “no regrets” at not being able to play at Indian Wells and the Miami Open in the US due to his vaccination status.https://t.co/Z1GIOHwNL3

— CNN (@CNN) March 21, 2023

Djokovic, who will make his return on the European clay this spring as he mounts his charge for a third Roland-Garros title, says he wants to focus on the present.

“It’s a pity that I wasn’t able to play in Indian Wells and Miami,” he said. “I love those tournaments. I had plenty of success there. But at the same time, it is the conscious decision I made and I knew that there is always a possibility that I won’t go. And it is the current state or current situation that I hope will change for later this year for the US Open. That is the most important tournament for me on the American soil.”

No regrets for the soon to be 36-year-old.

“No, I have no regrets,” Djokovic said in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson. “I’ve learned through life that regrets only hold you back and basically make you live in the past. And I don’t want to do that. I also don’t want to live too much in the future. I want to be as much as in the present moment, but of course think about future, create a better future.”