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This week’s “final” WTA rankings for 2022 was delayed a day, with the finale of the WTA Finals held on a Monday night in Fort Worth, Texas.

And with the points from the 2021 edition already gone more than a week ago, the jumps inside the top 10 (and the drops out of it) might not be quite as dramatic as they might normally be.

Still, WTA Finals champ Caroline Garcia is back to No. 4 in the world, a career high she first held more than four years ago and – surely, at times – thought she might never get back to.

ATP Tour Rankings Report – as of Nov. 7, 2022

The other changes, for the most part, are further down the list.

ON THE UPSWING

Caroline Garcia (FRA): No. 6 =======> No. 4 (What a season for Garcia, at No. 75 to start it and now with titles on four surfaces, including the season-ending WTA Finals).

Aryna Sabalenka (BLR): No. 7 =======> No. 5 (There were tears after the final, especially when she shouted out to her team about the challenging season they’ve had. But despite the loss she defended most of what she had to defend, and ended it on a pretty high note at a tournament she most likely didn’t think she would even qualify for).

Wang Xiyu (CHN): No. 53 =======> No. 60 (The lefty Wang – her similarly-aged counterpart, Xinyu Wang, is the righty – hits the top 50 for the first time even though she was idle last week).

Kamilla Rakhimova (RUS): No. 103 =======> No. 93 (Rakhimova, 21, wins the ITF in Nantes and gets back into the top 100. A year ago in Australia, she lost out in a heartbreaker in the final round of qualifying to Rebecca Marino. This year, she should make her main-draw debut).

*Townsend and McNally at the US Open, where they reached the doubles final. McNally’s Midland win could also be Townsend’s gain.*

Caty McNally (USA): No. 111 =======> No. 94 (McNally won the race for the USTA reciprocal wild card. But in winning the Midland WTA 125, she’s inside the top 100 for the first time, at a career high, and therefore will have no need for it as she earns the spot on her own. It looks like that spot will now to go … Taylor Townsend, who finished third in that race despite playing just two events. The two made the US Open doubles final together this year. No. 2 finisher Madison Brengle doesn’t need it to get into the main draw. As a bonus: McNally was named to the U.S. BJK Cup team after Jessica Pegula withdrew. It’s been a good week!)

Marketa Vondrousova (CZE): No. 121 =======> No. 99 (She’d been gone so long she basically fell off the radar. But Vondrousova, the former Roland Garros finalist and world No. 14 who had been out since losing in the first round in Stuttgart back in April, has returned at this season’s end. She lost her first match back in Poitiers the last week of October. But the 23-year-old lefty won the $100K ITF in Shrewsbury last week and is inside the top 100. Which means she wouldn’t have to use a protected ranking slot to play Melbourne, although it might come in handy in some of the other events, because it’s about No. 32).

*Vondrousova at the 2019 French Open (EPA/JULIEN DE ROSA)*

Daria Snigur (UKR): No. 113 =======> No. 106 (a career high for Snigur, who made the semis at the ITF in Nantes).

Ana Konjuh (CRO): No. 155 =======> No. 136 (As Konjuh, still just 24, makes her way back from yet another injury setback, she makes the Shrewsbury semis and moves up nearly 20 spots).

Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER): No. 184 =======> No. 145 (The 28-year-old, whose career high in singles was No. 45 back in 2016, as been better in doubles than singles lately. But making the Midland final moves her up nicely).

Sofia Kenin (USA): No. 253 =======> No. 235 (She’s been trying, but Kenin lost in the quarterfinals in Midland. Still, she moves up 19. Kenin still hasn’t used any of her two protected rankings passes for Grand Slam tournaments. But as a former champion there, you’d think she wouldn’t have any issues anyway).

Vera Lapko (BLR): No. 349 =======> No. 291 (The former No. 60, still just 24, has been laid low by injuries in the last few years. But again: persistence. She wins a $25K ITF in Trnava, for which the points are added this week, and climbs back inside the top 300).

Timea Babos (HUN): No. 340 =======> No. 319 (The former No. 25 in singles and world No. 1 doubles player began her season with a decision to skip Australia because of its vaccine policies. Fast forward 10 months and she’s trying to rebuild on clay in South America, after a semifinal effort at a $60K ITF in Barranquilla. She’s in the draw in Colina this week).

ON THE DOWNSWING

Coco Gauff (USA): No. 4 =======> No. 7 (Gauff’s ranking last week was sort of an artificial one because of the drops from the 2021 WTA Finals – sort of the way Genie Bouchard moved up to No. 5 – for a week – until the end of a winless 2014 WTA Finals in Singapore, when she dropped back down to where she was at No. 7. As tough a week as she had in Fort Worth, she can still be very proud of her season).

Madison Brengle (USA): No. 52 =======> No. 57 (Brengle won Midland in 2021; she lost in the second round this year).

*Mayar Sherif in a losing cause against Emma Raducanu at the US Open qualifying in 2021. Who knew?*

Mayer Sherif (EGY): No. 50 =======> No. 63 (Idle last week, Sherif’s points from a semifinal at the WTA 125 in Argentina a year ago drop off. Idle since the end of September, she’s playing the clay WTA 125 in Colina this week).

Anna Bondar (HUN): No. 59 =======> No. 71 (Same issue for Bondar, who won that 125 in Argentina and is defending another big chunk of points this week from a $60K in Chile a year ago).

Diane Parry (FRA): No. 65 =======> No. 76 (Parry, then ranked just inside the top 200, made major hay at the end of last season. She won a $25K in Spain in late October, and followed that up with a final at the WTA 125 in Argentina to move her into the top 150. Then, she made the semis at the $60K in Chile, and won a 125 in Montevideo to end her season ranked No. 115. Her problem this year is that she’s a key member of the French BJK Cup team, which is competing in a playoff tie in France this weekend against the Netherlands. Indoors, on hard courts. That basically precludes her from going down to South America and defend all those points. And, trying to preempt that with tournaments in Europe the last few weeks, she has three consecutive first-round losses on indoor hard. Tough stretch for her).

*Diane Parry, practicing at the 2022 Australian Open*

Sara Errani (ITA): No. 104 =======> No. 109 (Errani is down in South America for the WTA 125s where – looking to move up just enough so avoid the qualifying in Melbourne. Odds are she might well make it, with nothing to defend. At 35, her persistence is impressive).

Mirjam Bjorklund (SWE): No. 127 =======> No. 153 (Bjorklund lost in the first round in Shrewsbury, and drops the points from a $25K title in Texas a year ago. She’s off on a nice end-of-season vacation with her love, Canadian Denis Shapovalov. Maldives, of course. I mean, they’re tennis players. A year ago, Bjorklund was ranked No. 252, so it’s still been a successful 2022 overall).

Vera Zvonareva (RUS): No. 245 =======> No. 273 (Zvonareva is still on the computer, even though she hasn’t played since the Miami Open …. She drops what look to be some pretty old, legacy points from the pre-Covid days. There hasn’t been much news from her, other than a pic of her in a walking boot back in June. Whatever it was, it seems she’s finally planning to be back!