3 WTA Players Likely to Drop Out of the Top 10 in 2026

Alexandrova is a fantastic player who works incredibly hard and competes with a ferocity that few can match. That said, she’s notoriously streaky, which is always a concern when it comes to maintaining consistency. Yes, she’ll hit spectacular peaks, but she’ll also have stretches where her level drops significantly.

Having secured her Top 10 spot by only about 150 points, she’s a prime candidate to drop out unless she produces a superb season. In fairness, that’s entirely possible. The Russian tends to play well across all surfaces, which should help her maintain her position. But when you look at the names lurking just behind her in the rankings (Bencic, Svitolina, Mboko, Osaka), there’s a strong chance one of these players overtakes her sooner rather than later.

2. Madison Keys

Keys finds herself in a precarious position. The American hasn’t done much outside of last year’s Australian Open title, and that single run accounts for roughly half her ranking points. If she doesn’t produce another deep run in Australia, she’s staring at a massive drop that will be difficult to recover from.

Just imagine if she makes the quarterfinals, which would be a solid but not spectacular result. She’d drop approximately 1,500 points, which would send her tumbling to around number 12 in the rankings. Given how sparingly she plays these days, climbing back into the Top 10 will be extremely challenging.

That said, we’re talking about an exceptionally talented player who can win any tournament she enters on her day. If she strings together a few strong weeks, she’ll likely hold her ground. Ultimately, her streakiness is both her greatest strength and her biggest vulnerability. It makes her a prime target to slip out of the Top 10.

3. Jasmine Paolini

Picking a third player was genuinely difficult because most of the rest of the Top 10 is known for being relatively consistent. Ultimately, we settled on Paolini, who already seemed to hit a bit of a wall last year. She didn’t recapture the highs of her 2024 season, even though she proved she belongs at this level.

With several other players stepping up their games, there’s a legitimate chance Paolini fails to maintain her Top 10 spot. She seems more vulnerable compared to the others. The one thing working in her favor is her fighting spirit. Very few players compete with the same relentless tenacity that she brings to every match.

She also tends to play a lot, even competing regularly in doubles, which could help her accumulate enough points to survive. Then again, that heavy schedule can also lead to fatigue, which might hurt her in other ways. She’s by far the least likely of these three to drop out, but she’s on our list nonetheless.