October 27, 2024

Open Court

MORE TENNIS THAN YOU'LL EVER NEED

WTA Rankings Report – As of May 16, 2022

ROLAND GARROS – Iga Swiatek is on an incredible roll.

Five straight tournaments, 28 straight match victories, and a defence of her Italian Open title as she heads to Paris.

She is over 2,000 points ahead of Barbora Krejcikova, who is defending 2,000 points at Roland Garros and looks, at this point, unlikely to make the date.

Swiatek is going to be way up there for … awhile.

For the full WTA Tour updated rankings picture, effective Monday, click here.

ON THE UPSWING

Ons Jabeur (TUN): No.7 =======> No. 6 (A new high for Jabeur, who didn’t have much in the legs for the Rome final against Swiatek after a very successful clay-court season).

Leylah Fernandez (CAN): No. 18 =======> No. 17 (Another rise, just one spot, but enough to make it another career high. She’ll be disappointed with much of her clay season – notably the third-set tiebreak loss to Daria Kasatkina in Rome).

Daria Kasatkina: No. 23 =======> No. 20 (The Russian is back in the top 20 after a super effort in Rome. It’s the first week since March 2019 that she’s been back in the top 20; she began the 2021 season ranked No. 71 and definitely in the career doldrums).

Jil Teichmann (SUI): No. 29 =======> No. 24 (The 24-year-old matches her age – and hits a new career high after making the quarters in Rome. After a pair of three settters against Pliskova and Elena Rybakina, she retired in the second set of her quarterfinal vs Kasatkina).

Amanda Anisimova (USA): No. 32 =======> No. 28 (The 20-year-old is back in the top 30 with a run to the quarters in both Madrid and Rome. She reached the semis in Charleston as well. Before that, she was ranked No. 47. She’ll be seeded in Paris and that’s good news for her opponents, because she’s been playing good tennis this spring. Anisimova began the season ranked No. 78).

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Mayar Sherif (EGY): No. 62 =======> No. 50 (The 26-year-old Egyptian hits the top 50 for the first time in her career, after winning the WTA 125 in Karlsruhe, Fermany last week. She won the doubles, too, and moved into the top 100 and a career high in that as well).

Bianca Andreescu (CAN): No. 90 =======> No. 72 (Two solid weeks in Madrid and Rome, and Andreescu has done wonders with her actual ranking. But she’ll be unseeded in Paris. So you hope she gets a good draw – both for her, and for a seeded opponent who won’t want to face her right out of the box).

Wang Xinyu (CHN): No. 99 =======> No. 75 (A career high for the 20-year-old from China, who will be playing in her first Roland Garros main draw next week. Wang, the No. 2 seed, won the $100K women’s ITF in Spain last week. She had her fill of three-set matches, and won them all).

Lauren Davis (USA): No. 102 =======> No. 90 (The 28-year-old American is back in the top 100 after qualifying and making the second round in Rome).

Claire Liu (USA): No. 118 =======> No. 92 (The 20-year-old moves back into the top 100 after winning the Trophée Lagardère WTA 125 in Paris last week. She dropped only one set and beat Dayana Yastremska, Kaia Kanepi and Beatriz Haddad Maia along the way).

Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva (AND): No. 184 =======> No. 158 (The 16-year-old has been quiet lately. But she made the semifinals at the $100K in Spain last week, and is at a new career high. She’s playing the the Roland Garros qualifying this week).

Erika Andreeva: No. 240 =======> No. 171 (The 17-year-old Russian made the final at the $100K in Spain out of the qualifying, and jumps into the top 200 for the first time, at a career high).

Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER): No. 249 =======> No. 207 (The 28-year-old German made the Karlsruhe semifinal last week and is playing Strasbourg this week, and not the French Open qualifying).

Katrina Scott (USA): No. 391=======> No. 327 (The 17-year-old is slowly moving up the rankings, with a new high after winning the $25K in Daytona Beach two weeks ago).

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ON THE DOWNSWING

Karolina Pliskova (CZE): No. 6 =======> No. 8 (Pliskova made the Rome final a year ago, although she had a couple of bagels dropping upon her by Swiatek. She took a wild card into the Strasbourg tournament this week, to get some matches, after failing to win back-to-back matches at any tournament this spring and losing her opener in Rome to Jil Teichmann).

Coco Gauff (USA): No. 15 =======> No. 18 (The 18-year-old’s ranking is hanging in there. But she’s not producing much recently. She has a quarterfinal to defend from last year in Paris, and a round of 16 at Wimbledon. So it’s (sort of – I mean, she’s 18) crunch time for her in the next month).

Angelique Kerber (GER): No. 19 =======> No. 22 (Kerber falls out of the top 20, and also takes a wild card into Strasbourg, along with Pliskova and Garbiñe Muguruza).

Elina Svitolina (UKR): No. 27 =======> No. 32 (Svitolina drops, But she doesn’t care. There is happy news, which was something some of us suspected after she stopped playing after Miami – and also from some of the recent photos of her).

Petra Martic (CRO): No. 47 =======> No. 70 (The 31-year-old qualified and beat Muchova and Kontaveit on her way to the third round in Rome, but ran into Bianca Andreescu there. Good effort, but she was defending a semifinal from a year ago and drops quite a bit).

Kristina Mladenovic (FRA): No. 100 =======> No. 110 (Mladenovic, whose career high was No. 10 back in 2017, has really been scuffling of late. she’s 1-9 on the year and that one win was in the qualifying in Madrid. She played an ITF $100K two weeks ago and the Tropheee Lagardère last week – where she lost in the first round to Magdalena Frech. She and Haddad Maia did win the doubles. Even her doubles ranking is nowhere near the No. 1 it was less than three years ago, because she’s played little. Mladenovic actually dropped from No. 116 to No. 229 last week, despite the win, because she and Marketa Vondrousova reached the Rome doubles final a year ago).

Vera Zvonareva: No. 110 =======> No. 135 (Zvonareva could have played Roland Garros, with an entry ranking of No. 103. But she withdrew).

Katie Volynets (USA): No. 112 =======> No. 136 (A drop in the rankings for Volynets, who won a $100K ITF in Bonita Springs, Fla. a year ago. But she won the USTA reciprocal Roland Garros singles wild card, so she’s guaranteed some cash and has an opportunity to make a move there).

Nadia Podoroska (ARG): No. 117 =======> No. 143 (Podoroska, who hasn’t played since last year’s US Open, drops points from a third-round effort in Rome a year ago that included an upset over Serena Williams. She went from the qualifying to the semis at the 2020 fall edition in Paris – breaking into the top 50 kind of out of nowhere. But it’s been a bit of a rough go since. She is entered to come back in Paris; but we’ll see).

Anastaija Sevastova (LAT): No. 160 =======> No. 199 (The 32-year-old hasn’t played since the Australian Open).

Christina Mchale (USA): No. 210 =======> No. 256 (It’s been a quick and painful tumble down the rankings for the player who was steadily a top-100 performer for a decade).

Jennifer Brady (USA): No. 279 =======> No. 318 (Absolutely no word about when the former No. 7 might be back).

THE CANADIANS

With her final in Rome, Gabriela Dabrowski moves up to No. 6 in the WTA Tour doubles rankings.

THE RACE TO …

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