Aryna Sabalenka has extended her hold on the WTA’s top ranking into a 76th consecutive week, moving into sole possession of the third-longest run at No. 1 this century. Her latest milestone edges past Iga Swiatek’s 75-week streak between 2022 and 2023.

The rise comes immediately after an outstanding Sunshine Swing. Sabalenka became just the fifth woman to complete the Sunshine Double after winning Indian Wells for the first time and Miami for the second consecutive year. That sequence helped cement her place atop the rankings and pushed her career total to 84 weeks at No. 1.

Sabalenka first reached No. 1 for eight weeks in 2023 and then began her second and current stint on October 21st, 2024. Her 76-week run now places her alone third for longest uninterrupted runs at No. 1 since 2000, behind only Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty. In the WTA’s full historical list dating to 1975, this stretch is tied for the 11th-longest overall.

Form on court has matched the ranking. Sabalenka is 23-1 this year with three titles and has reached the final at each of her last five tournaments. She has not lost before the quarterfinals of any event in more than a year.

As the tour moves toward clay, Sabalenka carries a substantial lead in the standings, ahead by 2,917 points over world No. 2 Elena Rybakina. That cushion may be tested on clay: Sabalenka collected 2,840 clay-court points last year, winning Madrid, reaching the finals at Stuttgart and Roland Garros and making a quarterfinal in Rome. By contrast, Rybakina earned 870 clay points last year, taking a WTA 500 title in Strasbourg but failing to reach the quarterfinals at Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros.

The combination of recent form and a commanding points margin leaves Sabalenka well positioned as the clay season begins, while historical milestones continue to accumulate.

Less than a year after stepping away from professional tennis, former world No. 4 Caroline Garcia and her husband, Borja Duran, announced they are expecting their first child. The couple shared the news in a joint social-media post showing them walking along the beach at the Hotel Fairmont Mayakoba Riviera Maya in Mexico, wearing blue and holding sonogram photos. The images and caption made clear they wanted to celebrate the moment together.

Garcia, 32, married Duran last summer in Spain. The pair have also collaborated off court as producers of the “Tennis Insider Club” podcast, which debuted in 2024, and the new arrival will be the first family addition since they launched the show.

Reaction from peers in the WTA community was warm. The news was received positively by players including Paula Badosa, Barbora Krejcikova and Jasmine Paolini, along with former world No. 1 Garbiñe Muguruza, who just had a son, and Ons Jabeur, who will welcome a son next month. Those responses underscored Garcia’s standing among colleagues and the wider women’s tour.

The couple did not explicitly state the baby’s gender, though their coordinated blue outfits in the announcement photos prompted speculation. Beyond the public announcement, the post focused on family and the next chapter of life away from the weekly demands of tour travel.

For Garcia, who reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4, this marks a significant personal milestone in the months after retirement. For listeners of their podcast, and for followers who have tracked her career, the pregnancy announcement is a reminder that many athletes reshape their priorities after leaving the tour. Garcia and Duran’s joint reveal blends personal joy with the same direct, collaborative approach they brought to their media project.

In a Dubai semifinal against Elina Svitolina, Coco Gauff’s frustration boiled into a rare on-court outburst. At 2-2, 15-all in the second set, a double fault prompted Gauff to stride toward her guest box and Gavin MacMillan, the biomechanics guru who joined her team last summer, and say, “I’ve been doing everything you’ve wanted for the last six months, and it’s gotten not better at all, bro.”

The moment underscored a persistent issue. For more than two years Gauff has led the WTA in double faults by a wide margin. Last summer she struck 23 double faults against Danielle Collins and 14 against Veronika Kudermetova on her way to the round of 16 in Montreal. In 2023 she hit 219 double faults and ranked 18th on the tour for that stat. In 2024 she leapt to 430, and she recorded 431 the following year.

Where the problem begins is debated. Is it a bio-mechanical flaw that can be adjusted, or a mental block commonly referred to as the yips? Brad Gilbert, who coached Gauff for 14 months ending in late 2024, offered perspective: “Coco, to me, is more resilient than a lot of those people,” and added, “Even with the serve issues, she still won the French. She still won two majors. She’s still finished in the Top 3 in the world. I feel like if you got the yips, this mental thing, your ranking is dropping, and fast.”

Analyst Rennae Stubbs sees a largely mechanical problem: “I think [her problem], it’s 90 percent mechanical and 10 percent mental,” she wrote. “The problem is that the 10 percent becomes 50 percent once the serve starts going off, because bad technique breaks down under pressure.

“There are so many mechanical issues with Coco’s serve that it’s really difficult to change at this point, but I do think it’s possible. I know Gavin is trying his best.”

Jimmy Arias recalled his own serving anxieties: “She should come talk to me,” he said. “I got the yips near the end of my career. I got so anxious serving that my right hip flew open too early, making it hard to hit a good second serve. I knew what the problem was, but I couldn’t stop it, even though I kept closing my serving stance more and more, until I looked like (John) McEnroe.”

Paul Annacone urged perspective and suggested a different focus: “No doubles, yet she was still annoyed at her serving,” he said. “What she said to MacMillan shows that she’s got baggage, she sees the serve as a big issue. But let’s be honest. How many majors has she won with, quote, unquote, a bad serve? Is it really bad? It’s not great, but so what?” He proposed “reprogramming her vision,” aiming for serving strategy over sheer power.

Experts differ on fixes, but all underscore that the problem is both technical and psychological. As Arias put it, “The most mystifying thing about all of this is how good Coco is in spite of everything.”