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Some upsets and unexpected results during the WTA tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Linz meant some interesting jumps in the rankings for a number of players.

Notably, while Belinda Bencic won her second title of 2023, she doesn’t move even though she adds 370 points to her tally. She does put herself a lot closer to No. 8 Daria Kasatkina and No. 7 Maria Sakkari, though.

But Liudmila Samsonova, who had three match points in that final before succumbing, moves up to a career-high ranking.

The Doha 500 this week is packed – only Ons Jabeur (“minor” surgery), and Australian Open champion and finalist Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina are absent among the top 20. And, of course, Simona Halep.

For the complete, updated WTA rankings for Monday, click here.

ATP Rankings Report – as of Feb. 13, 2023

ON THE UPSWING

Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA): No. 14 =======> No. 12 (A career high for the 26-year-old, who has a lot of the tools of the top, top players on the WTA Tour and just needs to bring it every week to get that huge breakthrough result. In the meantime, she made the Abu Dhabi semis, and moves up again).

Liudmila Samsonova (RUS): No. 19 =======> No. 15 (First top-15 ranking for the 24-year-old Samsonova, who made the Abu Dhabi final. If she could consistently play as well as she did in the first set of a losing cause to Bencic in that final, she’d be top 5 with a bullet).

Zheng Qinwen (CHN): No. 29 =======> No. 24 (Still just 20, Zheng moves to a career high after her semifinal in Abu Dhabi).

Anastasia Potapova (RUS): No. 44 =======> No. 31 (Potapova is having a pretty good 2023 so far, and her title in Linz is the second of her career – after Istanbul in 2022. It’s a career high for her).

Marketa Vondrousova (CZE): No. 89 =======> No. 74 (Vondrousova, who missed a big chunk of time in 2022, has a protected ranking of No. 32 to fall back on when she needs it. But she’s making her way back up the rankings on her own, with the semifinal in Linz worth 15 spots in the new rankings).

Océane Dodin (FRA): No. 112 =======> No. 102 (Dodin has eschewed the Australian swing and WTA events so far in 2023, as she toils on the ITF circuit at various levels. She wins the $60K in Grenoble and moves up 10).

Clara Tauson (DEN): No. 141 =======> No. 128 (The former Australian Open junior champion – she defeated Leylah Fernandez in that final – got as high as No. 33. But it’s been an injury-plagued 12+ months; she looks to be back. and moves up after getting to the second round of Linz as a lucky loser).

Greet Minnen (BEL): No. 185 =======> No. 157 (The former No. 69 is rebuilding her ranking on the ITF circuit. And she wins the $40K ITF in Portugal last week to make a nice leap).

Ashlyn Krueger (USA): No. 181 =======> No. 166 (Krueger, the 18-year-old who defeated Genie Bouchard in the first round of Australian Open qualifying, moves to a career high by making the semifinals at the ITF in Orlando, Fla. last week).

Sabine Lisicki (GER): No. 337 =======> No. 299 (Lisicki, the 33-year-old former Wimbledon finalist and world No. 12, is still plugging away. She qualified at the Orlando ITF and made the semifinals, squeezing her back into the top 300 for the first time since Sept. 2019).

ON THE DOWNSWING

Jelena Ostapenko (LAT): No. 12 =======> No. 14 (Ostapenko lost in the second round in Abu Dhabi, and drops some points from making the semifinals at the currently suspended St. Petersburg Trophy event a year ago).

Anett Kontaveit (EST): No. 18 =======> No. 27 (It wasn’t long ago that Kontaveit was the No. 2 player in the world – last June, in fact. The only time she has won back-to-back matches since July 2022 was at her pop-up “home” event in Tallinn last September, where she made the final. With her second-round loss in Abu Dhabi, she’s out of the top 25 after dropping her points from winningn St. Petersburg a year ago. She’s not playing Doha this week; that’s another 585 points up to be dropped, because she made the final there a year ago. Without those, she will drop well out of the top 50).

Elise Mertens (BEL): No. 32 =======> No. 37 (From a career high of No. 12 in 2018, and even No. 16 two years ago, Mertens is out of the top 35 after losing in the second round of Abu Dhabi. She’s in the final round of qualifying in Doha Monday).

Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) No. 27 =======> No. 38 (Begu had semifinal points to defend from a year ago in St. Petersburg. But she lost in the first round of the Linz tournament).

Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR): No. 38 =======> No. 44 (The draws have been tough for a ‘Tweener like Sasnovich, who lost in the first round of the Abu Dhabi qualifying, and in the second round of the Doha qualifying to Canadian Rebecca Marino. She drops her quarterfinal points from St. Petersburg a year ago, and will drop another 90 from qualifying and making the second round in Doha in 2022).

Katie Boulter (GBR): No. 123 =======> No. 141 (Boulter was idle last week, so didn’t defend the 80 points she earned for wining a $60K ITF in Grenoble a year ago).

Brenda Fruhvirtova (CZE): No. 133 =======> No. 144 (It’s been one-way traffic for the 15-year-old’s ranking so far. Up. But she drops 10 when she (mercifully) takes a week off tournaments, and doesn’t defend the 50 points earned a year ago when, ranked outside the top 1000, she won a $25K in Argentina on clay).

Jaqueline Cristian (ROU): No. 193 =======> No. 232 (Cristian has a protected ranking of No. 65, which she’s using to come back after injury. A year ago, she was at a career-high No. 58. But a first-round loss in Linz means she drops a fair bit, because she didn’t defend points won for making the second round in St. Petersburg. Last year, Cristian was out after retiring in Doha, all the way to the US Open. So at least the next six months are wide open for her to earn points).