Rankings Watch: Gauff returns to No. 2, Swiatek drops to No. 5

This week's edition of the PIF WTA Rankings marks a sea change in the Top 5 following the conclusion of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, the year's second clay-court WTA 1000 event:

• Coco Gauff, the runner-up in Rome, rises one spot to No. 2, matching her previous career high. She previously held the No. 2 ranking for 10 weeks during the summer of 2024.
• Jessica Pegula moves up one place to No. 3, also equaling her career-best ranking.
• Jasmine Paolini, newly crowned Rome champion, climbs to No. 4, the same ranking she held at the start of the 2025 season. She became the first Italian to win the tournament since Raffaella Reggi in 1985, and the first to win a WTA title on home soil since Roberta Vinci in Palermo in 2013.
• Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, falls from No. 2 to No. 5 after a third-round loss to Danielle Collins, ending a 173-week run inside the Top 2 that included 125 weeks as World No. 1. Swiatek has not reached a final since winning her fifth Grand Slam title at Roland Garros last year.
• Mirra Andreeva and Elina Svitolina, both quarterfinalists in Rome, climb one place each to No. 6 and No. 13, respectively.

Americans Stearns, Baptiste reach new career highs

University of Texas alumna Peyton Stearns delivered a history-making run in Rome. Not only did she reach her first WTA 1000 semifinal, but she did so by becoming the first player in the Open Era to win three consecutive matches in third-set tiebreaks. Even more impressively, all of those victories were over former Grand Slam or WTA Finals champions -- Madison Keys, Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina.

Stearns was coming off a fourth-round run in Madrid, her first tournament alongside new coach Blaz Kavcic. This week, she rises 14 places from No. 42 to make her Top 30 debut at No. 28.

The largest numerical move in this week's Top 100 belongs to another 23-year-old American, Hailey Baptiste. She qualified for Rome and reached the third round, where she stretched Svitolina to three sets, then made the second round of last week's Paris WTA 125 event. Baptiste climbs 20 spots to a new career high of No. 70.

Canadian comebacks and breakthroughs

As Bianca Andreescu and Victoria Mboko racked up wins in Rome, the two Canadians exchanged messages of support with each other. Former US Open champion Andreescu is embarking on yet another comeback, this time from an appendectomy in February. She knocked out two Top 20 players, Donna Vekic and Elena Rybakina, to reach the last 16 of Rome, and rises 19 places from No. 121 to No. 102.

The 18-year-old Mboko has been one of the most in-form players on the ITF circuit this year, collecting five trophies in 2025. She's also excelled when given the opportunity at WTA 1000 level. Two months after reaching the second round of Miami and stretching Paula Badosa to three sets, Mboko qualified and repeated the feat in Rome, this time taking a set from Gauff in an eye-catching second-round loss.

The teenager wasn't done there. Mboko continued to build on her momentum in Parma last week, where she notched her first Top 50 win over Wang Xinyu en route to her first career WTA 125 final. Her season record is now a remarkable 37-5, and having started 2025 at No. 333, she's now up another 34 places from No. 156 to No. 122.

Other notable rankings movements

Emma Raducanu, +6 to No. 43: The former US Open champion reached the fourth round of Rome, marking the first time in her career that she has won three consecutive clay-court matches.

Kamilla Rakhimova, +10 to No. 75: Rakhimova notched the first two Top 50 wins of her season over the past two weeks -- over Wang Xinyu to reach the second round of Rome as a lucky loser, and over Moyuka Uchijima to make the Paris WTA 125 quarterfinals.

Antonia Ruzic, +13 to No. 104: The 23-year-old Croat qualified for Rome and won a first-round barnburner over Tyra Caterina Grant, saving two match points, to notch her first WTA 1000 victory. Ruzic rises to a new career high.

Francesca Jones, +13 to No. 113: Jones, 24, also reaches a new career high after the Briton captured her second ITF W75 title of the year in Prague two weeks ago.

Chloe Paquet, +17 to No. 121: Paquet reached her third career WTA 125 final last week in Paris, a run that included her first career Top 20 win (via retirement) over No. 1 seed Amanda Anisimova in the quarterfinals.

Ena Shibahara, +16 to No. 123: Former doubles No. 4 Shibahara's transition to singles continues its upward trajectory. The Japanese 27-year-old was runner-up at the Prague ITF W75 two weeks ago, and reaches a new career high.

Tamara Korpatsch, +21 to No. 149: Former No. 71 Korpatsch won the Trnava ITF W75 last week, the German's first singles title at any level since lifting her maiden WTA trophy at Cluj-Napoca 2023.

Emerson Jones, +29 to No. 207: Junior No.1 Jones captured her second pro title at the Fukuoka ITF W35 two weeks ago. The 16-year-old Australian rises to a new career high.

Zarina Diyas, +43 to No. 275: Former No. 31 Diyas won her second ITF W50 title in the past eight months last week in Kurume. The 31-year-old Kazakh returns to the Top 300 for the first time since 2022.

Lia Karatancheva, +32 to No. 282: The 21-year-old Bulgarian -- the younger sister of former No. 35 Sesil -- captured her first pro title at the Indian Harbour Beach ITF W50 two weeks ago, and makes her Top 300 debut.

Janice Tjen, +71 to No. 301: Over the past three weeks in South Korean ITF W35s, Pepperdine University alumna Tjen has compiled a 12-3 record with one title, one final and one semifinal. The 23-year-old Indonesian defeated former No. 31 Zhu Lin in the second week's final in Goyang, and climbs to a new career high.

Luisina Giovannini, +54 to No. 313: The 18-year-old Argentinian captured her third ITF title of the year at the Boca Raton ITF W35 three weeks ago, and reaches a new career high.

Lois Boisson, +155 to No. 358: The Frenchwoman's comeback from an ACL injury that sidelined her for nine months in 2024-25 continues to gather momentum. After winning her first WTA main-draw match in Rouen last month, Boisson captured the Saint-Gaudens ITF W75 title two weeks ago. The 22-year-old will make her Grand Slam main-draw debut as a wild card in Roland Garros next week.

Carol Young Suh Lee, +137 to No. 420: Georgia Tech University alumna Lee has been on a roll in 2025. The Northern Mariana Islands native, who represents the United States, is on a 12-match winning streak after winning the Lopota ITF W50 and Toyama ITF W15 titles in Georgia and Japan. The 23-year-old's overall 2025 record is 47-8, and she makes her Top 500 debut this week.

Monika Ekstrand, +181 to No. 548: The 18-year-old American captured her second ITF W35 title of 2025 two weeks ago in Boca Raton.

Petra Kvitova, +222 to No. 608: Former No. 2 Kvitova notched the first win of her comeback from maternity leave in Rome last week, defeating Irina-Camelia Begu before a right leg injury forced her to withdraw from the tournament.

Ane Mintegi Del Olmo, +465 to No. 728: Mintegi Del Olmo, the 2021 Wimbledon junior champion, has been unable to play a full pro season since due to struggling with injuries: she contested eight tournaments in 2022, three in 2023, six in 2024 and five so far in 2025. Two weeks ago, the 21-year-old Spaniard collected her second career ITF W35 title in Platja d'Aro to begin moving in the right direction again.

Kristina Liutova, +326 to No. 811: Liutova, 15, reached the Indian Harbour Beach ITF W50 semifinals as a qualifier two weeks ago in just her sixth professional tournament. Liutova becomes the second 2010-born player to reach the Top 1,000, following No. 630-ranked Jana Kovackova.