
(Photo: AFP)
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With a 500 and a 250 tournament on offer, there were a few top-10 players – Paula Badosa and Caroline Garcia – in action.
Both lost at the first time of asking and Garcia missed an opportunity to slip past Halep, Gauff and Sakkari to move as high as No. 7.
So, as is often the case during this post-US Open period, there were plenty of opportunities for other players to make moves.
There are no changes in the top 10.
But there are plenty of career highs as you go down the list.
For the complete, updated WTA rankings picture, click here.
ON THE UPSWING
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT): No. 19 ========> No. 17 (Ostapenko made the final in Seoul, giving her a net plus after losing in the second round a year ago in Ostrava (which is two weeks later this season).
Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS): No. 24 ========> No. 21 (Alexandrova was already at a career high of No. 24. After winning Seoul, she’s at another new career high, this at No. 21).
Liudmila Samsonova (RUS): No. 30 ========> No. 23 (Samsonova won her third tournament of the 2022 season after beating Zheng Qinwen in the Tokyo final. It’s a career high).

Zheng Qinwen (CHN): No. 36 ========> No. 28 (A few weeks shy of her 20th birthday, the Chinese rising star makes the top 30. It might have happened even sooner had the Chinese swing not been eliminated since 2019, when she was still just 16 turning 17, and getting a few minor wild cards into qualifying. Had those tournaments been held, she likely would have had more opportunities. But she’s doing it on her own anyway, after reaching the Tokyo final last week – her first final).

Madison Brengle (USA): No. 60 ========> No. 51 (Look who is just 11 points away from the top 50, with a win at the $60,000 ITF in Berkeley, Calif. last week. Brengle, now 32, has been at No. 60 or above all season, and in the top 100 seemingly forever. But she hasn’t been in the top 50 since Jan. 18, 2016).
Lin Zhu (CHN): No. 70 ========> No. 63 (At 28, Zhu hits a career high after making the Seoul quarterfinals).

Emma Raducanu (GBR): No. 77 ========> No. 66 (The good news is that the Seoul semifinal is another step in the right direction of the ranking. The bad news is that she had to retire in the third set of that semifinal).
Tatjana Maria (GER): No. 80 ========> No. 70 (Maria moves up 10 with a Seoul semifinal. Add in her Wimbledon semi and she’d be at No. 32).
Claire Liu (USA): No. 84 ========> No. 73 (The under-the-radar American, 22, reaches a career high after her Tokyo quarterfinal).
Viktoriya Tomova (BUL): No. 109 ========> No. 93 (A new career high for the 27-year-old from Bulgaria, after reaching the Budapest 125 final).

Fernanda Contreras Gómez (MEX): No. 182 ========> No. 141 (The 24-year-old from Mexico reaches a career high after qualifying and making the second round in Tokyo – a gain of 41 spots. She got diced up by Kudermetova in the second round, but was impressive against an inconsistent Sofia Kenin in her first round).
Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva (AND): No. 186 ========> No. 153 (The 17-year-old qualified and reached the quarterfinals in Seoul, moving her to a career high).
Brenda Fruhvirtová (CZE): No. 195 ========> No. 166 (Another career high for 15-year-old Brenda, the younger of the two Fruhvirtova sisters. She wins another tournament – a $25K in Santa Margherita di Pula two weeks ago, on a waklover in the final. That runs her current win streak at the $25K ITF level to 25-0, with five titles. She won two other $25Ks in Argentina (also on clay) to start the 2022 season. Fruhvirtova was at No. 394 at the start of this run in June, and has lost just two sets. Which makes you wonder why she kept playing at that level. This week, she’s playing a $60K in Spain).

Diana Shnaider (RUS): No. 246 ========> No. 220 (The 18-year-old makes the semis at the $60K in Berkeley, moving to another new career high. Most players with her age, junior record and ranking – especially Americans – probably wouldn’t have made the decision she did, as she begins her college career at North Carolina State. It was a late add – only announced at the start of the US Open. It might well mean she just doesn’t have the funding to go pro, but you wouldn’t expect her to be on the four-year college plan).
Yanina Wickmayer (BEL): No. 460 ========> No. 396 (Wickmayer, back from maternity leave, is playing on a protected ranking but improving her real ranking slowly but surely. She makes the second round in Seoul – and also wins the doubles with Kristina Mladenovic).
ON THE DOWNSWING
Anett Kontaveit (EST): No. 3 ========> No. 4 (Kontaveit. Other than a good run in Hamburg in July, Kontaveit hasn’t done a thing since … February, when she won St. Petersburg (a 500) and made the final in Qatar (a 1000). She drops her pointsfrom winning Ostrava last year. And she has 1,920 more points to defend from last year’s crazy late-season run to the final of the WTA finals. Without all those points, she’s down to No. 14 or so – which is probably not as bad as you’d expect. She has a big week at home this week, as the headliner in a home-country event in Tallinn that she probably never thought would be something she’d get to do).

Petra Kvitova (CZE): No. 18 ========> No. 20
Elena Rybakina (KAZ): No. 22 ========> No. 25 (Rybakina, who would be No. 5 in the world with her Wimbledon champions’ points, drops three as she defends quarterfinal points from Ostrava, but only reaches the second round in Tokyo this year).

Jil Teichmann (SUI): No. 31 ========> No. 36 (Teichmann was a quarterfinalist in Ostrava last year, but was idle last week. She doesn’t have much to defend, with a 500 and a 1000 still ahead in the U.S.).

Nuria Párrizas Díaz (ESP): No. 61 ========> No. 76 (It’s been mostly up and up for the 31-year-old, who os playing the best tennis of her life. But after a first-round lost in the Budapest 125, she drops the points she earned from winning a similar tournament on hard court in Columbus, Ohio a year ago).
CoCo Vandeweghe (USA): No. 123 ========> No. 140 (Vandeweghe, now 30, loses ground on an idle week after she made the semis of the Columbus 125 a year ago).
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS): No. 178 ========> No. 213 (Pavlyychenkova ended her 2022 season awhile ago. But it looks like she’s training again in preparation for 2023).
THE CANADIANS

THE ROAD TO TEXAS (Singles)

THE ROAD TO TEXAS (Doubles)



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