While their male counterparts are dealing with a duopoly, the WTA Tour is full of heavy hitters, any one of whom it feels like could be crowned champion at the Australian Open.
Sure, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka went wire-to-wire as the tour’s top player in 2025 and won the most recent major at the US Open. Not to mention she opened the season with a title in Brisbane. But Elena Rybakina sent a message with her WTA Finals win to end last season. Coco Gauff looked dominant at the United Cup. And Iga Swiatek is eyeing the career Grand Slam.
And those are just a few of the women who have plenty of reason to believe they could be the last player standing in Melbourne. It was hard for the National Bank Open Power Rankings Panel to whittle it down to just ten names. But we tried.
Here are the 2026 Australian Open WTA Power Rankings.
1) Aryna Sabalenka
- Actual Ranking: 1
- 2025 Record: 63-12
- Best AO Result: Champion (Twice)
The WTA’s 2025 Player of the Year tops this year’s first edition of the Power Rankings, and there isn’t much to argue against Aryna Sabalenka being the favourite heading into the season’s opening Slam. The world No. 1 has the Australian Open pedigree, having reached the final in Melbourne three-straight years and winning back-to-back titles before her reign was ended by Madison Keys’ impressive run last year.
Sabalenka ended 2025 with a 39-7 record on hard courts, which included a US Open triumph and a trip to the WTA Finals title match in Riyadh. The world No. 1 is already off to a perfect start to 2026, cruising to the championship in Brisbane without dropping a set, scoring wins over Keys, Karolina Muchova, and Marta Kostyuk.
- Francesco
2) Iga Swiatek
- Actual Ranking: 2
- 2025 Record: 64-17
- Best AO Result: SF (Twice)
Iga Swiatek will be chasing history in Melbourne, which makes her that much more of a threat ahead of the Australian Open. After winning Wimbledon in 2025, the Pole can become the sixth woman in the Open Era to achieve the Career Slam with an Aussie Open title, and something tells us she won’t want to wait another year to have the chance to complete the feat.
Read also: Who can be 2026's Mboko, Boisson?
Swiatek is coming off a United Cup win with Poland, taking three of her five singles matches, but her straight-sets loss to Coco Gauff brought her record against Top 10 opponents since the start of 2025 down to 9-9. If she gets over this slight bump Down Under, Swiatek will be joining elite company in WTA history.
- Francesco
3) Coco Gauff
- Actual Ranking: 3
- 2025 Record: 48-16
- Best Australian Open Result: Semifinal (2024)
2025 was a bounce-back year for the 21-year-old American, as she added a second Grand Slam title at Roland-Garros and finished the season strong with her third WTA 1000 title in Wuhan. Gauff then made a statement to start 2026, taking down Iga Swiatek in straight sets at the United Cup.
The American has been consistent in her Australian Open career, reaching at least the fourth round each of the last three years, but is still seeking that breakthrough. Gauff has a tendency to play her best tennis late in seasons and will be hoping 2026 is the year she can parley a strong finish to last year into a good start to this one.
- Pete
4) Amanda Anisimova
- Actual Ranking: 4
- 2025 Record: 45-16
- Best Australian Open Result: Fourth round (Three times)
Last year’s most-improved player arrives in Melbourne looking to reach her third consecutive major final, having finished as the runner-up at both Wimbledon and the US Open. Anisimova posted career-best results throughout 2025, adding her first two WTA 1000 titles to go along with her two Grand Slam finals and clinching a spot at the WTA Finals.
Anisimova has been steadily improving since her return to the tour after taking a mental health break in 2023-2024 and now has her eyes on even bigger prizes. The American will be seeded third at the Australian Open this year, by far her highest seeding at a major in her career. She is due for a breakthrough at Melbourne Park, the lone Grand Slam where she has yet to reach the quarter-finals.
- Pete
5) Elena Rybakina
- Actual Ranking: 5
- 2025 Record: 59-19
- Best Australian Open Result: Runner-Up (2023)
Carrying momentum over the off-season after a big result at the year-end championships is tougher than it seems, but Rybakina will be hoping she can bring the form that saw her lift the trophy in Riyadh in November down to Melbourne. The former Wimbledon champion finished last season in style, going undefeated at the WTA Finals and capping off her run with a straight-set win over world No. 1 Sabalenka in the final.
Rybakina had a sneaky good year in 2025. Her 59 match wins were a career-high, breaking her previous mark by a full dozen. While she did not secure a major or a WTA 1000 crown, she was very consistent and reached three WTA 1000 semifinals and two more quarter-finals. She won three titles overall, scoring two WTA 500s to go with her WTA Finals triumph, her most in a single season. Now she will look to bring that confidence to a venue where has had success before, coming within a few points of the title in Melbourne back in 2023.
- Pete
6) Jessica Pegula
- Actual Ranking: 6
- 2025 Record: 53-23
- Best AO Result: QF (Three times)
With the Buffalo Bills on to the AFC Divisional Round and the Buffalo Sabres fresh off a ten-game win streak, can Jessica Pegula add to the family’s recent successes in Melbourne?
The Buffalonian finished last year on a bit of a high, reaching the final in Wuhan and semifinal at the China Open, US Open, and WTA Finals. Pegula has yet to get her hands on a major trophy, but her big-event titles have all come on hard courts, with a 2022 triumph in Guadalajara and back-to-back National Bank Open wins from 2023-2024.
Read also: Catching up with 2025 NBO Montreal Champion Victoria Mboko
Add in a US Open final in 2024, and the American looks to always be a threat when it comes to big events on the concrete, as history suggests.
- Francesco
7) Mirra Andreeva
- Actual Ranking: 8
- 2025 Record: 40-17
- Best Australian Open Result: Fourth round (Twice)
Andreeva was one of the biggest stories of the first half of 2025, opening the year with a 19-3 record and securing back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells. The 18-year-old has already earned herself a reputation as a big-match player, reaching the fourth round or better at 52 per cent of the “Big” (Grand Slam and WTA 1000) events she has played in her career.
Read also: Best Stories from an Unpredictable 2025 WTA Season
That includes every appearance the youngster has made in Melbourne. In her previous two appearances at the Australian Open, Andreeva has reached the fourth round both times. With two major quarter-finals and a semifinal already under her belt, not to mention the two WTA 1000 titles, a Grand Slam breakthrough for the teen feels like just a matter of time.
- Pete
8) Belinda Bencic
- Actual Ranking: 10
- 2025 Record: 37-15
- Best Australian Open Result: Fourth round (Three times)
The 2025 Comeback Player of the Year has already put the tour on notice in 2026 after her spectacular start to the season at the United Cup. The world No. 10, who played her first full year back on tour in 2025 after giving birth to her daughter in April 2024, went undefeated for Switzerland at the combined team event, scoring wins over No. 19 Elise Mertens, No. 8 Jasmine Paolini, and No. 2 Iga Swiatek. Despite Switzerland ultimately falling to Poland in the final, Bencic was named tournament MVP.
Bencic had a pair of WTA 500 titles in her comeback season last year and delivered her best result at a major since 2019, reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon. After building her game back up in 2025, her hot start to 2026 makes her a serious threat over the coming weeks in Melbourne.
- Pete
9) Madison Keys
- Actual Ranking: 9
- 2025 Record: 37-15
- Best AO Result: Champion (2025)
There seems to be a bit of a trend when it comes to recent Australian Open titlists, and who’s to say Madison Keys won’t follow suit. The previous two singles champions, for both women and men, have each gone on to successfully defend their crown the following year – Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner.
Keys’ play early last season showed what the American is capable of when she’s at her best. The 30-year-old began 2025 with a win in Adelaide, defeating Pegula in the final. Then, her 14-year wait for a Grand Slam title ended at the Australian Open, scoring wins against Rybakina, Swiatek, and Sabalenka en route to hoisting the trophy at Rod Laver Arena.
- Francesco
10) Jasmine Paolini
- Actual Ranking: 7
- 2025 Record: 46-21
- Best AO Result: 4R (2024)
Jasmine Paolini has yet to make a deep run at the hard-court Slams, but she has proved that if she finds her rhythm, she can be a threat at the Australian Open. In 2025, the Italian’s trips to the later rounds on the concrete included a runner-up finish in Cincinnati and semifinal results in Miami and Wuhan. All of her runs were ended by Top 3 opponents.
However, Paolini did sneak away with some notable wins in those big events, beating Gauff in Cincinnati and conceding just three games to Swiatek in Wuhan. The two-time major finalist remains a threat in Melbourne as she looks for her third hard-court singles title on tour.
- Francesco
The National Bank Open Power Rankings are a group collaboration by the Power Rankings Panel which includes:
- Pete Borkowski – Manager of Editorial and Player Coverage, Tennis Canada
- Melissa Boyd – Content Writer, Tennis Canada
- Sarah-Jade Champagne – Content Specialist, Tennis Canada
- Jonathan Chan - Content Contributor, Tennis Canada
- Julie Gravel - Marketing Director, Tennis Canada
- Edward Lee – Content Contributor, Tennis Canada
- Hugues Leger – Producer, Podcast Sur La Ligne
- Patrick Steski - Content Contributor, Tennis Canada
- Francesco Tosini - Content Writer, Tennis Canada
- Ravi Ubha - Content Contributor, Tennis Canada
2026 Australian Open Predictions
Champion:
- Pete: Aryna Sabalenka
- Mel: Aryna Sabalenka
- Pat: Aryna Sabalenka
- Julie: Naomi Osaka
- Pat: Aryna Sabalenka
- Francesco: Iga Swiatek
- Ravi: Aryna Sabalenka
Dark Horse:
- Pete: Karolina Muchova
- Mel: Victoria Mboko
- Jonathan: Marta Kostyuk
- Julie: Linda Noskova
- Pat: Diana Shnaider
- Francesco: Maya Joint
- Ravi: Naomi Osaka
Bold Prediction:
- Pete: Two teenagers will reach the quarter-finals.
- Mel: Defending champion Madison Keys will NOT make the second week.
- Jonathan: Madison Keys' quest to repeat ends early, and she's eliminated in the second round.
- Julie: Alexandra Eala is on fire and will make her quarter-final debut at the Grand Slam level.
- Pat: Aryna Sabalenka does not drop a single set.
- Francesco: Aryna Sabalenka does NOT reach the final.
- Ravi: Iva Jovic will make her first Grand Slam quarter-final.
The WTA's best return to Toronto next summer for the National Bank Open presented by Rogers Aug 1 to 13 at Sobeys Stadium. Get your tickets today!
Feature Photo: Martin Sidorjak
