Sabalenka top seed in Rome

Rome is about seedings on paper and pecking order in real life — and right now those two things are slightly out of sync. Aryna Sabalenka is still the projected top seed for the 2026 Italian Open women’s draw, but the bigger story is what Madrid just did underneath her. Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff have flipped in the live rankings, Elena Rybakina tightened her grip on the No. 2 spot, and Rome now looks like a checkpoint in a much bigger clay-court race. That is the part worth paying attention to. (tennis365.com) ### Why is Sabalenka still the top seed? Because Rome’s seedings were set from the WTA rankings dated April 20, not from whatever happened later in Madrid. On that list, Sabalenka led the field, followed by Rybakina, Gauff, Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, Amanda (tennis365.com) expect in the draw, including Sabalenka, Rybakina, Gauff, Swiatek, Pegula, Paolini, Osaka, Raducanu and Zheng. (tennis365.com) ### So what changed in Madrid? Madrid changed the live hierarchy, even if it did not rewrite Rome’s seeding sheet. The live rankings on April 30 show Sabalenka still No. 1 with 10,110 points and Rybakina No. 2 with 8,555, but Swiatek moved up to No. 3 on 6,948 while Gauff dropped to No. 4 on 6,749. That swap is the cleanest sign that the clay race is moving again. (live-tennis.eu) ### Why did Swiatek jump Gauff? Mostly because both lost points in Madrid, but Gauff lost more. The live table shows Swiatek down 325 points after a round-of-32 exit, while Gauff dropped 530 after losing in the round of 16. Swiatek still had enough left to edge past her. It was not a huge surge from Swiatek so much as a sharper slide from Gauff. (live-([live-tennis.eu)hat about Rybakina? Rybakina’s position looks sturdier now. She lost in the Madrid round of 16, but the live rankings still put her on 8,555 points, up 55 from the previous official total. That matters because it keeps a clear buffer between her and the Swiatek-Gauff cluster, and it preserves the No. 2 seeding line heading into Rome. (live-tennis. ([live-tennis.eu)s change the Rome draw? Not the seed numbers themselves — at least not from the April 30 picture. Sabalenka remains lined up as the top seed, and the pre-Madrid ranking cutoff means Rome’s projected order was effectively baked in already. But the catch is that seedings are only half the story. Form matters more on clay than people sometimes (live-tennis.eu)ies. (tennis365.com) ### Why does the Swiatek-Gauff flip matter then? Because No. 3 versus No. 4 changes the conversation even if it does not immediately change Rome’s bracket. Swiatek gets a bit of momentum back after a rough stretch by her standards, while Gauff goes into Rome having lost ground during the biggest clay event before it. In a sport built on tiny margins, that can change how every match is read. (live-tennis.eu) ### Who else is in the mix? The field is deep enough that this is not just a four-player story. Pegula and Anisimova are right behind the top four on the projected seed list, while Andreeva and Mboko are both inside the top 10 projections. Jasmine Paolini is also in the field as the defending Rome champion, which gives the tournament a second layer beyond the rankings fight. (tennis365.com) ### Bottom line Sabalenka is still Rome’s top seed. But the real movement is underneath her — Rybakina looks secure at No. 2, Swiatek has climbed back above Gauff in the live rankings, and Rome now feels less like a formality and more like the next test in the women’s clay-court power shuffle. (tennis365.com)