November 30, 2024

Open Court

MORE TENNIS THAN YOU'LL EVER NEED

WTA Rankings Report – As of Oct. 10, 2022

SAN DIEGO – The WTA Tour has had a few weeks of invigorating tennis in new and strange places, featuring some homegrown talents who have had an expected opportunity to show off at home.

There were Kaia Kanepi and Anett Kontaveit in Estonia a couple of weeks ago. And then Ons Jabeur in Tunisia last week – although she none of them were able to take the title and trophy onto their next destinations.

And in Ostrava Sunday, near the Polish border. a battle between the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova and Poland’s star No. 1 Iga Swiatek might well go down as one of the matches of the season.

It’s late season, and players are making late moves.

That’s why the moves are mostly up. Because these are often results that didn’t happen a year ago, and therefore are net pluses and not necessarily points defences.

Here are the complete, updated rankings for Monday.

ON THE UPSWING

Barbora Krejcikova (CZE): No. 23 =========> No. 14 (Three hours and 15 minutes after opponent Swiatek got off to a running start, Krejcikova came back and won in Ostrava, and is back in the top 15, within easy distance of Garbiñe Muguruza and Veronika Kudermetova).

Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR): No. 31 =========> No. 29 (Sasnovich is at a career high. But she couldn’t make it out of the wacky qualifying in San Diego).

Alizé Cornet (FRA): No. 37 =========> No. 32 (Cornet makes a nice move, but she’d probably love a do-over of the Monastir final, because she only got two games).

Elise Mertens (BEL): No. 42 =========> No. 36 (A vintage week for Mertens in Monastir).

Anastasia Potapova (RUS): No. 51 =========> No. 48 (The 21-year-old only reached the second round in Monastir, but she’s back in the top 50 again as this late period of 2022 has been her best ranking period ever).

Claire Liu (USA): No. 73 =========> No. 64 (She doesn’t make many waves, but the 22-year-old is quietly effective).

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Tereza Martincova (CZE): No. 78 =========> No. 70 (The Czech took her Ostrava wild card to the quarterfinals).

Wang Xinyu (CHN): No. 88 =========> No. 80 (Wang reached the final of the $60K ITF in Trnava last week; the run featured wins over two unranked players and one ranked No. 317 (unusual in such high-level tournament) but counts just the same).

Tamara Zidansek (SLO: No. 101 =========> No. 88 (At a career best No. 22 back in February, Zidansek fell outside the top 60 after this year’s French Open and is making her way back up – breaking back into the top 100 after a week outside it).

(She’s a righty)

Moyuka Uchijima (JPN): No. 124 =========> No. 113 (The little-known Uchijima – check her graphic on the WTA website – is 43-21 on the season after qualifying and making the quarterfinals in Monastir. She was No. 443 to start the season, which she did in the $25Ks. Anf after sitting in the 400s and 300s before and after the pandemic, she finally made her main-draw debut at the WTA level at the Chennai Open last month. Her win over Kamilla Rakhimova in the first round in Monastir was her first career main-draw win.  

(Here’s Uchijima)

Katie Swan (GBR): No. 129 =========> No. 118 (Swan won the Trnava title and after a long injury break, seems to be back on track).

Alycia Parks (USA): No. 144 =========> No. 121 (Parks went from the qualifying to the quarters in Ostrava last week – beating Karolina Pliskova and Maria Sakkari on the way to a loss against eventual champion Krejcikova. It’s a career high. And it was a great week; Parks also won the doubles with Caty McNally. So she is at a career high No. 79 in that discipline, too. In fact, that’s what first shows up when you look her up on the WTA website (because it’s higher ranking). So we’d expect a few erroneous Tweets in the next few days).

Caty McNally (USA): No. 151 =========> No. 123 (McNally is a huge talent who, at 20, has been a bit slow to come of age. Perhaps because she has so many weapons, and it takes time. Those with memories will remember that she beat Swiatek in the French Open juniors, before losing to Coco Gauff in the final. We know what Swiatek has done there since then. McNally qualified and made the quarterfinals in Ostrava in singles where she lost to … Swiatek).

Katrina Scott (USA): No. 184 =========> No. 149 (Scott, still just 18, gets into the top 150 for the first time after making the final of the $80,000 ITF in Rancho Santa Fe, just a few miles from this week’s WTA event in San Diego).

Despina Papamichail (GRE): No. 175 =========> No. 152 (At 29, the Greek player is playing the best tennis of her career, near her career high in singles and at a career high of No. 150 in doubles).

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Karolina Muchova (CZE): No. 189 =========> No. 158 (It’s been a tough road back for the talented Czech, even with her protected ranking of No. 22. A quarterfinal in Tallinn and a second round in Ostrava has been worth 70 spots in the rankings).

Marcela Zacarias (MEX): No. 229 =========> No. 166 (The 28-year-old from Mexico, who played Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the King Richard movie – this will probably always be on her bio – is at a career high in singles AND doubles this week. She won the Rancho Santa Fe title in singles. And, teamed with countrywoman Giuliana Olmos (who is one of the top seeds in San Diego this week with Gabriela Dabrowski), she reached the final in doubles).

Genie Bouchard (CAN): No. 506 =========> No. 443 (Winning two qualifying matches in Ostrava, despite a tough, tight loss to Belinda Bencic in the first round of the main draw, was worth more than 60 spots in the rankings to the Canadian. She got a wild card into Cluj this week and will face No. 2 seed Anhelina Kalinina in the first round. She has a shot at that one, no doubt about it, if she can show the level she showed in the Czech Republic).

ON THE DOWNSWING

Coco Vandeweghe (USA): No. 138 =========> No. 143 (Vandeweghe’s comeback from a couple of nasty, long-term injuries has sort of hit a plateau. But she finally did get a main draw wild card into her hometown San Diego event. So we’ll see what she might do; she plays Sofia Kenin in the first round).

Brenda Fruhvirtova (CZE): No. 150 =========> No. 157 (For the first time, probably, in her life, the 15-year-old’s ranking dropped this week. Should we worry? KIDDING).

Asia Muhammad (USA): No. 162 =========> No. 184 (The American drops some points from a $25K tournament title in Brisbane back in 2019, if you can believe that. She also drops points from winning a round in qualifying at the fall edition of Roland Garros in 2020. It’s like fall cleaning day or something). 

THE CANADIANS

THE ROAD TO TEXAS (Singles)

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