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ROME – After two weeks of the expanded Mutua Madrid Open, the updated rankings have finally come.
Not only the results from that Masters 1000 tournament, but those this past week at the WTA 125 level – and everything from the last two weeks at the ITF level.
Oh, and some results from THREE weeks ago at the $25K level and below on the ITF circuit, because those results are always posted a week after the tournaments end.
So .. a lot.
Leylah Fernandez and Taylor Townsend are up to No. 7 in the WTA finals race, and Townsend is up to a personal No. 6.
Let’s get to it. No way to get to everyone, but here are the main ones.
The complete, updated rankings can be found here.
ON THE UPSWING
Caroline Garcia (FRA): No. 5 ============> No. 4 (Garcia was dropped in the third round in Madrid, but Ons Jabeur not being able to defend her title moves her up one, as it does Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina, who lost her opener but moves up to a career high No. 6). (Rome opener: Bogdan OR Qualifier)
Martina Trevisan (ITA): No. 20 ============> No. 18 (It’s pretty impressive that the 29-year-old Trevisan has moved inside the top 20, to a career high, without seemingly having done much. But she made the round of 16 in Madrid, and that’s worth two spots. Hanging in the near future is the defence of her semifinal effort in Roland Garros a year ago). (Rome opener: Muchova OR Qualifier)
Zheng Qinwen (CHN): No. 24 ============> No. 21 (just 11 points behind Jelena Ostapenko for a first-ever spot in the top 20, Zheng reaches a career high with her third round in Madrid. She’s a star everyone expects to come up big; next step for her will be a big Slam move this summer). (Rome opener: Cornet OR Qualifier)
Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU): No. 35 ============> No. 28 (A quarterfinal in Madrid (she came through the section that originally had Jabeur in it) moves her back into the top 30. It also will seed her at Roland Garros). (Rome opener: Wang or Stefanini)
Petra Martic (CRO): No. 33 ============> No. 28 (Martic, another 32-year-old whose career highlights came a few years ago, has also gotten herself back into the mix to be seeded in Paris. And she’s a fine clay-court player. She made the quarterfinals in Madrid and gets herself into the top 30).(Rome opener: Gracheva OR Qualifier)
Sorana Cirstea (ROU): No. 44 ============> No. 34 (Cirstea lost in the second round in Madrid. But she went to Reus for the WTA 125 in the second week and won it. She may well squeeze in as a seed in Paris, and that’s good news for a lot of people because she can be pretty dangerous on the day). (Rome opener: Volynets)
Paula Badosa (ESP): No. 42 ============> No. 35 (An encouraging run in Madrid, but not enough to get her close to the top 30. And she could face Ons Jabeur in the second round in Rome). (Rome opener: Qualifier)
Sloane Stephens (USA): No. 48 ============> No. 36 (A disappointing Madrid for Stephens, who went out in the first round to Jaqueline Cristian of Romania. But, just like Cirstea, she bounced at a smaller WTA 125 event, this one in Saint-Malo, France. She wins it, and moves back into the top 40). (Rome opener: Podoroska)
Mayar Sherif (EGY): No. 59 ============> No. 43 (Sherif moves up to a career high after her quarter-final effort in Madrid, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka the day before their mutual birthday. She turned 27). (Rome opener: Blinkova)
Caty McNally (USA): No. 69 ============> No. 62 (An absolute all-courter of a player, pretty rare coming out of the U.S., McNally was in the Roland Garros final against 14-year-old Coco Gauff back in 2018. She was the elder by two years, but was beaten. Now still only 21, it has taken her a bit more time to sort of pull it all together. But it seems to be coming along as she reaches a new career high. McNally lost in the second round of Madrid, and made the quarters in Reus). (Rome opener: WC Spiteri)
Rebeka Masarova (ESP): No. 74 ============> No. 67 (Masarova, who was the RG junior champ a couple of years before the above-mentioned Gauff-McNally final – she defeated a 14-year-old Anisimova in 2016 – also has taken a bit of time to sort of put it together. At 23, now no longer Swiss but a Spaniard, she makes the third round in Madrid and moves to a new career high). (Rome Qualifying opener: Gadecki)
Marketa Vondrousova (CZE): No. 80 ============> No. 70 (The Czech lefty is slowly getting back to where she was before a long injury layoff. She plays Kaia Kanepi – ranked one spot behind her at No. 71 after dropping eight spots – in the first round in Rome. With the winner to play Andreescu). (Rome opener: Kanepi)
Emma Navarro (GBR): No. 101 ============> No. 83 (Another RG junior runner-up – to Leylah Fernandez in 2019 – Navarro played college tennis for a year, and is slowly coming on and breaks into the top 100 with a flourish. It has a Jessica Pegula kind of feel to it – not just because both their families are wealthy, but more because both are low-key types and there’s a “slow and steady wins the race” kind of thing. Navarro’s rise, as she won an ITF in Charlottesville and adds a quarterfinal last week in Saint-Malo, was too late to make the main draw in Paris. But her efforts in this period earned her the USTA’s reciprocal wild card. So she’ll be there).
Elizabeth Mandlik (USA): No. 147 ============> No. 117 (Mandlik, the daughter of tennis great Hana Mandlikova, moves ot a career high after she won a round in Madrid qualifying, and went all the way from the qualifying to the final in Reus). (Rome Qualifying opener: Rakhimova)
Elina Avanesyan (RUS): No. 166 ============> No. 123 (She toils in obscurity, doing well at the ITF level, and often qualifying at the WTA level, without any major results. But after losing in the first round of qualifying in Madrid she went to the $100K ITF in Wiesbaden, Germany – and won it. She’s one spot off her career high, at age 20).
Mirra Andreeva (RUS): No. 194 ============> No. 146 (The now 16-year-old – barely – announced her arrival in Madrid, going all the way to the fourth round on a wild card before being taken out by eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka. She’ll be one to look for in the Roland Garris qualifying).
Arina Rodionova (AUS): No. 293 ============> No. 219 (Coming back from injury, the 33-year-old Aussie puts up three ITFs on the board on this Monday: A win aat Nottingham 1, a win at Nottingham 2, and a semifinal at Nottingham 3. Nice work, without having to relocate).
Genie Bouchard (CAN): No. 285 ============> No. 233 (The 29-year-old Canadian took a big step in Madrid, qualifying and winning a round to lop more than 50 points off her ranking. She then withdrew from a planned participation in the $100K in Wiesbaden, and puts her eggs in the qualifying in Rome. She got the sweet Pietrangeli court Monday for her first round vs. Dalma Galfi. If she wins that, Mirjam Bjorklund or Taylor Townsend). (Rome Qualifying opener: Galfi)
Stacey Fung (CAN): No. 321============> No. 255 (The 26-year-old Canadian wins the biggest pro title of her career, a $40K in Tbilisi, Georgia, and adds a second round at a smaller ITF in Sharm El Sheikh three weeks ago, for a career high).
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS): No. 599 ============> No. 506 (Slowly, the 31-year-old who missed most of 2022 is pecking away at her ranking. Winning a round in Madrid was worth … 93 spots. She still can work with a high protected ranking for awhile, though). (Rome opener: Errani)
Elina Svitolina (UKR): No. 1088 ============> No. 540 (Another return – this one from a maternity leave – has the Ukrainian cutting her previous ranking exactly in half. Despite losing her opener in Madrid, she made the semifinal in Saint-Malo). (Rome opener: Tsurenko)
ON THE DOWNSWING
Ons Jabeur (TUN): No. 4 ============> No. 7 (The calf injury sustained in Stuttgart proved not to be a quick healer – at least, not quickly enough for the Madrid 2022 champion to defend her title. And so she drops 1,000 points. She is still the No. 4 seed in Rome, and she could face her pal Paula Badosa in the second round. So no favours for either). (Rome opener: Badosa OR Qualifier)
Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS): No. 17 ============> No. 22 (Alexandrova was a semifinalist last year out of the qualifying, so losing in the round of 16 drops her out of the top 20). (Rome opener: Giorgi or Qualifier)
Simona Halep (ROU): No. 26 ============> No. 30 (Halep reemerged recently to update fans on the fact that her anti-doping hearing, originally scheduled for February, is dragging on and on. She drops Madrid quarterfinal points from 2022. With more bombs to come this spring and summer).
Bianca Andreescu (CAN): No. 27 ============> No. 31 (Andreescu drops four, after losing her opener in Madrid. But she’s still ikely to be seeded in Paris. She has a chance to improve that standing this week in Rome, but not the easiest path). (Rome opener: Kanepi or Vondrousova)
Marie Bouzkova (CZE): No. 31 ============> No. 38 (Bouzkova may have bounced herself out of RG seeding contention with a third-round loss in Madrid, after going fom the qualifying to the fourth round last year. She still can do something this week, as she’s less than 100 points out of the top 32 –and Halep won’t play. Plus, she didn’t play Rome a year ago). (Rome opener: McNally or Spiteri)
Anhelina Kalinina (UKR): No. 34 ============> No. 47 (It feels like Kalinina hasn’t done much lately. But she has maintained her ranking for awhile, but now drops close to being out of the top 50 after an opening loss in Madrid. She’s still seeded in Rome. (Rome opener: Sherif or Blinkova)
Jil Teichmann (SUI): No. 30 ============> No. 58 (Teichmann had a lot of points invested in last year’s Madrid result, when she made the semis. She lost her opener this year. And then she lost in the quarterfinals at the Reus WTA 125. She still gets a bye in Rome. But she’s defending quarterfinal points there, and a fourth round at Roland Garros). (Rome opener: Grabher or Brancaccio)
Amanda Anisimova (USA): No. 46 ============> No. 61 (Anisimova announced this week, after losing her opener in Madrid to qualifier Arantxa Rus and withdrawing from Rome and Roland Garros, that she was taking an indefinite break from the game. Her struggles, visible to those who watch reasonably closely, haven’t gotten the same attention that the higher-ranked players have gotten in dealing with mental health challenges).
Emma Raducanu (GBR): No. 75 ============> No. 103 (Raducanu drops out of the top 100 after she misses Madrid. And she had procedures on both of her hands to address an issue she has been trying to manage and deal with for a fairly long time. It just got beyond the point where it could be managed. She also had her ankle cleaned up at the same time. She’ll be out awhile; you would expect she’d not be back before the six months to get a protected ranking. Although she’s clearly shown that getting wild cards are no problem).
Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP): No. 102 ============> No. 155 (The Spaniard, who made quarters last year in Madrid, lost in the first round of qualifying this year, and then in the first round of the Reus WTA 125. Kind of uncharitable not to give the former No. 32 a wild card in Madrid. But IMG owns it now, so that’s all she wrote. She has a protected ranking she can work with for awhile. And she’s on the bubble to make the main draw at Roland Garros with her ranking at the entry deadline, and may well squeeze in).
Taylor Townsend (USA): No. 120 ============> No. 168 (Townsend had a result from a year ago to defend – a title at a $100K ITF in Charleston, which she couldn’t do when she lost in the final round of the Madrid qualifying. On the plus side, she and Leylah Fernandez made the doubles semifinals). (Rome Quaifying opener: Bjorklund)
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