Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula’s Italian Open campaigns came to an end in the quarter-final and both will no doubt feel it was a missed opportunity in terms of ranking points earned. With world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka losing in the third round in Rome, Rybakina was the favourite to win the title, but she was upset by seventh seed Elina Svitolina in three sets while Pegula was crushed by fourth seed Iga Swiatek.
Rybakina had her chances against Svitolina – who won the title in Rome in 2017 and 2018 – as she had 20 break points, but the Ukrainian saved 16 and came away with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory in two hours and 23 minutes to draw level with the world No 2 in their head-to-head rivalry as they have now each won four matches. Pegula, meanwhile, ran into a dominant Swiatek in the last eight as she was humbled 6-1, 6-2 by the three-time Italian Open champion.
Svitolina will face Swiatek for a place in the final in what will be a rematch of the Indian Wells Open quarter-final in March, which was won by the Ukrainian, while Rybakina and Pegula will switch their attention to the French Open. WTA Ranking Points Earned With the WTA using a rolling 52-week, cumulative system to determine the rankings, players have to defend points they earned from the corresponding tournament/period 12 months ago.
Example: Player A won a WTA 1000 event last year and earned 1,000 points. They then drop those 1,000 points at the start of the 2026 edition and will then earn points for their round-by-round progression at that tournament.
WTA News Italian Open: How Iga Swiatek’s win over Jessica Pegula affects WTA Rankings as Coco Gauff impacted Aryna Sabalenka warned she has already created a big problem for herself at Roland Garros Rybakina and Pegula were both in a good position at the start of the tournament as they lost in the third round twelve months ago so they were defending only 65 points. A run to the quarter-final of WTA 1000 events is worth 215 points, so both earned 150 ranking points.
World No 2 Rybakina will no doubt be disappointed as she missed a chance to edge closer to Sabalenka at the top of the WTA Rankings as the gap is now 1,255 points whereas a title run would’ve resulted in the gap being just 470 points. Pegula remains fifth, 203 points adrift of Coco Gauff.
Prize Money Earned Rybakina started the Italian Open top of the 2026 WTA prize money list as she had already earned $4,055,262 so far this year with the bulk of that coming from her Australian Open title run. The two-time Grand Slam winner will add another $198,089 (€169,375) to her tally for her quarter-final appearance.
Pegula was third on the 2026 list with $2,393,343 and she will also go home with a cheque of $198,089. tennis365.com”>Tennis365.
