The women’s clay-court season is already here with the top stars jousting with emerging talents at the ongoing Charleston Open and WTA Colombia with the eye on the upcoming French Open. The WTA Clay Court Power Rankings this year finds two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep at No. 1. The 2018 French Open champion won two clay-court titles last season, with one of them coming at the prestigious Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

The 29-year-old Halep was awarded the title after co-finalist, Czech star Karolina Pliskova, withdrew midway into the championship clash with an injury.

Simona Halep holds 1,500-point over Kiki Bertens in the WTA clay-court rankings

Halep currently holds a 1,500-point lead over Dutch tennis star Kiki Bertens, the defending champion at WTA Madrid, who ranks No. 2 in the clay-court rankings.

Karolina Pliskova, who fell to Latvian Jelena Ostapenko in the second round of last year’s French Open, comes in at No. 3 in the rankings.

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However, Pliskova been passing through a career slump lately, going down to compatriot Karolina Muchova in the third round of the Australian Open and following that up with a quarter-final exit in Qatar and a round-of-16 loss in Dubai.

She fared no better at the just-concluded Miami Open, falling in the third round to rising American Jessica Pegula.

Ashleigh Barty and Iga Swiatek are making their debuts at the clay-court Power Index this year

Marking their debuts in the women’s clay court rankings this year are current World No. 1 and 2019 French Open champion Ashleigh Barty and Polish teen sensation Iga Swiatek, who lifted her maiden Grand Slam title at Roland-Garros last year.

Also making the rankings for the first time is 21-year-old Czech star and 2019 French Open finalist, Marketa Vondrousova.

Making her return to competitive action after a year out of the circuit because of the pandemic, Barty reached the quarters of this year’s Australian Open.

Redeeming herself after the Melbourne Park disappointment, the 24-year-old Barty successfully defended her 2019 Miami Open title, which was also her first championship win this year. However, her victory came under unfortunate circumstances as opponent Bianca Andreescu of Canada pulled midway through the final with an injury.

Read More: “It’s Terrible”: Simona Halep Reveals the Toughest Moment in Her Career