Naomi Osaka narrowly retains top spot in WTA rankings

Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka narrowly retained the numero-uno spot in the latest Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings despite her quarter-final exit at the recently-concluded Madrid Open. 

The 21-year-old Japanese slumped to a 6-3, 2-6, 5-7 defeat at the hands of Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in the last-eight clash to bow out of the Madrid Open. 

However, Osaka will continue to stand at the top position for at least one more week after Halep dashed her hopes of reclaiming the world number one position after being beaten by Kiki Bertens 4-6, 4-6. 

Osaka is placed at the top position with 6,356  points, maintaining a narrow lead of 239 points over the Romanian. 

Meanwhile, the victory saw Bertens--who became the first woman to win Madrid Open without dropping a set-- climb up to a career-high fourth position in the women's singles rankings.

Germany's Angelique Kerber has climbed up to the third spot, replacing Petra Kvitova who rounds off the top five in the list.

The current WTA top 10 are as follows: 

1. Naomi Osaka (Japan) 6, 356 pts

2. Simona Halep (Romania) 6,117 

3. Angelique Kerber (Germany) 5, 285 

4. Kiki Bertens (Netherlands) 5, 115 

5. Petra Kvitova (Czech) 5,050 

6. Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) 4, 866

7. Karolina Pliskova (Czech) 4, 786 

8. Sloane Stephens (USA) 4, 656

9. Ashleigh Barty (Australia) 4, 425

10. Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) 3, 500