Elena Rybakina, 23, achieved a new career-high ranking of No 6 this Monday – a ranking position she should have had 10 months ago. On this week’s updated WTA list, Rybakina gained one position as she is now the sixth-best ranked player with 4195 ranking points.

Last summer, Rybakina – who at the time was ranked at No 23 – became a Grand Slam champion at Wimbledon. But because the WTA sanctioned Wimbledon by removing ranking points from last year’s tournament, Rybakina didn’t gain much ranking-wise following her triumph at The Championships.

Had the Wimbledon points counted last year, Rybakina would have become the world No 6 after winning it all at The Championships.

After finishing as runner-up at this year’s Australian Open, Rybakina broke into the top-10 for the first time in her career.

“I don’t think tomorrow I’m going to feel different just because of the ranking now. For sure, it’s going to be different in the smaller tournaments I would say. I’m going to be seeded. Maybe in some tournaments I’m not going to play in the first round.

So of course there are some benefits out of this. But for sure I don’t really look at the numbers or rankings so much,” Rybakina said after the Australian Open and entering the top-10 for the first time in her career. After winning her first WTA 1000 title in Indian Wells, Rybakina rose to a career-high ranking of No 7 in the world.

“I think the biggest goal is of course to be No. 1. There is still long way to go. So this is the kind of end goal, I would say. For now, I’m 7, but you know how quickly the ranking change. So I need to always focus on the next tournament I play.

Yeah, I’m just trying not to think so much about the ranking, especially now since it’s a long way to go (smiling),” Rybakina said after winning Indian Wells and reaching at the time a new career-high ranking.

Fifth-ranked Cori Gauff has just around 150 points more than Rybakina as the Kazakh could soon enter the top-5 for the first time in her career.