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A WTA 1000 event, combined with a smaller 250 event that might offer more surprises is a good recipe for a bunch of rankings changes.

With next week being a low-key 250s week, the major moves have been made in terms of players positioning themselves to be seeded at Indian Wells and Miami.

The biggest winner of the week was former world No. 2 Barbora Krejcikova. The Czech defeated the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 players in the world in one week, to win the Dubai tournament.

There was no change in the top 10, though, even though all of them but Ons Jabeur were in Dubai.

ATP Rankings Report – As of Feb. 27, 2023

For the complete, updated WTA rankings, click here.

ON THE UPSWING

Liudmila Samsonova (RUS): No. 13 =========> No. 12 (Samsonova moves to a career high, even though she only made the third round in Dubai. A good consolation prize: she won the doubles with Veronika Kudermetova and moves from No. 196 to No. 59 in the doubles rankings, too. These two paired up at the start of 2023 and at first, the results didn’t come. But they were just getting warmed up).

Barbora Krejcikova (CZE): No. 30 =========> No. 16 (A tremendous week for Krejcikova, who nearly cuts her ranking in half (tough to do once you get to the higher part of the pyramid) and helps herself in terms of the seeding at Indian Wells quite a bit. Then again, the way she played last week she doesn’t need much help).

Madison Keys (USA): No. 23 =========> No. 20 (She might well be disappointed with her quarterfinal loss to Coco Gauff in Dubai. But she’s still back in the top 20).

Anhelina Kalinina (UKR): No. 33 =========> No. 29 (Kalinina is into the top 30 for the first time, with her third-round result in Dubai. She’s pretty under the radar; she’s also pretty solid).

Leylah Fernandez (CAN): No. 37 =========> No. 32 (Fernandez made the second round in Dubai before running into the buzzsaw that was Swiatek. Still, she moves up five spots and becomes the No. 1 Canadian again. Her challenge is that next Monday, she drops 280 points from the Monterrey title she opted not to defend, by going on the Middle East swing for the first time. That will drop her outside the top 45).

Shelby Rogers (USA): No. 45 =========> No. 39 (Rogers is back inside the top 40 after her second-round effort in Dubai).

Camila Giorgi (ITA): No. 68 =========> No. 46 (Unseeded, Giorgi came into Merida and took the title, with a 6-0, 6-0 shellacking of former US Open champion Sloane Stephens along the way).

Elisabetta Cocciaretto (ITA): No. 54 =========> No. 49 (The unheralded Italian is into the top 50 for the first time, at a career high, after making the Merida quarterfinals. She’ll look to add to that in Monterrey this week. A year ago, she was ranked No. 242 and playing $25Ks on clay in Turkey. So she’s come a huge way).

*Cocciaretto at the 2002 Guadalajara tournament*

Ana Bogdan (ROU): No. 75 =========> No. 57 (The Romanian qualified and reached the third round in Dubai).

Caty McNally (USA): No. 92 =========> No. 75 (McNally is an all-around great talent we’ve been waiting to see blossom. It’s taken a bit of time but her semifinal effort in Merida puts her at a career high. She’s in the doubles final there; her performances with Coco Gauff last year put her at a career-high No. 11 in doubles in last April. She has six titles – three with Gauff, one with Kalinskaya, one with Parks and another with Hailay Baptiste).

Karolina Muchova (CZE): No. 112 =========> No. 77 (Muchova’s protected ranking allotment is going to be running out soon enough. So it’s good for her that she finally got herself back into the top 100 after sort of rolling around in purgatory for nearly a year. On the negative side, she withdrew before her scheduled quarterfinal in Dubai with a back issue).

Viktoriya Tomova (BUL): No. 99 =========> No. 87 (At 28, the Bulgarian is at a career high after qualfying and making the second round in Dubai).

Dayana Yastremska (UKR): No. 122 =========> No. 103 (Yastremska, who has been through a few coaches in the last year or two, qualified and won a round in Dubai. That puts her whiskers away from being back in the top 100 – her career high of No. 21 came in Jan. 2020, before the pandemic. With the first anniversary of the Ukraine invasion upon us, she’ll have to shut out all the memories of her run from Odessa through Romania to Lyon, France without her parents and with just her younger sister Ivanna a year ago. A frightening time).

Kimberly Birrell (AUS): No. 133 =========> No. 116 (It might not be huge news, but Birrell, 24, is at a career high having qualified and made the Merida quarterfinals. In terms of Australian women’s tennis, there’s the patriated Croat Ajla Tomljanovic in the top 35 and … not much else at the moment. Daria Saville is at No. 59, but she’s out after knee surgery. So it’s good news, with the recent retirements of Ashleigh Barty and Samantha Stosur for them when one of their women players makes a move).

Yanina Wickmayer (BEL): No. 246 =========> No. 213 (The 33-year-old, a former No. 12, has had a very under-the-radar return from maternity leave at the lower-level events. But she makes a nice leap by winning a $40K ITF in Macon, France last week).

Amandine Hesse (FRA): No. INFINITY =========> No. 899 (The 30-year-old is back from having her first child – this seems to be massive news in the French tennis media world, like no one else has ever done this. And by going from the qualifying at the Macon ITF to the quarterfnals, she gets back onto the rankings chart. Her career high of No. 154 came in 2016).

ON THE DOWNSWING

Simona Halep (ROU): No. 17 =========> No. 19 (Halep’s hearing on her positive doping test is supposed to be this month – which only has a couple of days left in it, so it’s likely already happened. In the meantime, she’s still hanging in, in the top 20 even though she hasn’ tplayed since the US Open last year. That is going to change after Indian Wells, where she reached the semifinals a year ago, losing to Swiatek).

*Badosa on the practice court in Adelaide, Jan. 2023*

Paula Badosa (ESP): No. 19 =========> No. 22 (Badosa is out of the top 20, after losing her opener in Dubai. Less than a year ago, she was ranked No. 2 in the world. Badosa went out in Doha to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the first round; in Dubai last week, she went out to Samsonova in the first round. Badosa has semifinal points in Indian Wells and quarterfinal points in Indian Wells to defend. Without those points, she would be somewhere below No. 45. These are tough, tough times for a very appealing player).

Jelena Ostapenko (LAT): No. 20 =========> No. 26 (Ostapenko also is out of the top 20, with her third-round effort in Dubai not making up for her Doha semifinal effort a year ago. In 2022, Ostapenko was on fire during this period – semis at the 500 in St. Petersburg, winning Dubai (which was a 500 last year) and making the semis at Doha (which was a 1000). So to get through that period and still be at No. 26 is actually not too bad in the big picture. But if we know anything about her, she’ll be back).

Marie Bouzkova (CZE): No. 26 =========> No. 30 (Bouzkova drops the points from making the final in Guadalajara – now Merida – a year ago. And she lost in the second round in Dubai. But she took a wild card into Monterrey and will look to make those up there. Last year, she was a Monterrey quarterfinalist).

Elise Mertens (BEL): No. 38 =========> No. 42 (The slipping in the rankings continues for Mertens, who didn’t play in Dubai and drops points from a third-round effort a year ago).

Sloane Stephens (USA): No. 41 =========> No. 51 (Mexico is typically a happy place for Stephens’s tennis. But although she made the quarters in Merida, she had to digest a pair of bagels at the hands of Giorgi. She will try to do some things in Austin, Texas this week – where she is the No. 5 seed and meets Taylor Townsend in the first round).

Anett Kontaveit (EST): No. 27 =========> No. 61 (Kontaveit pulled out of Doha and Dubai, and with it all her points from making the Doha 1000 final a year ago are gone. Before that, she dropped her points from winning the 500 in St. Petersburg (which was Abu Dhabi this year. After that effort in Qatar, she was at No. 7 in the world. Her ranking is at the lowest it’s been since May, 2017).

Madison Brengle (USA): No. 80 =========> No. 95 (Brengle lost in the first round of Dubai qualifying, and drops points from making the third round a year ago. She’s at the Austin tournament this week, set to meet a qualifier in the first round and has third-round points to defend from last year’s Miami Open coming up).

Clara Tauson (DEN): No. 113 =========> No. 126 (Tauson, the former No. 33, is still only 20. But as she was off last week, she dropped second-round points from a year ago. Her once-assured rise has gone in fits and starts through injury).

Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP): No. 87 =========> No. 127 (It’s been a long time since the former No. 1 was this low – April 2012, actually. She withdrew from Dubai, and also from Indian Wells. In both cases she would have had to play the qualifying. At 29, it feels like her career is kind of at a crossroads).

Wang Qiang (CHN): No. 125 =========> No. 147 (The former No. 12, now 31, hasn’t played since losing in the first round of the Tokyo event last September).

Jaqueline Cristian (ROU): No. 212 =========> No. 266 (Cristian, a former No. 58, has an special injury ranking of No. 65. But she hasn’t used it that much – she is already out of Indian Wells in a few weeks. She drops points from qualifying and making the second round in Qatar a year ago. On the plus side for her – she missed half the year in 2022, until she returned at the US Open. So anywhere she can play and do something until the end of the summer will be a net-plus for her).

Wang Yafan (CHN): No. 431 =========> No. 584 (The former No. 47, stll only 28, has been off the grid for awhile. She returned a couple of weeks ago for the first time since May, 2022 on the Australian ITF circuit. Her quarterfinal effort at an event in Swan Hill wasn’t enough to counter the 50 points she earned a year ago, winning a $25K in Turkey. So she has a lot of work to do).