February 4, 2025

Open Court

MORE TENNIS THAN YOU'LL EVER NEED

WTA Rankings Report – As of June 12, 2023

ROLAND GARROS – A major always brings with it big ups and downs, as those who didn’t defend points drop, and those who had impressive runs rise.

And there are other tournaments in the interim that also offer opportunities for those as the lower end of the scale.

There are some big drops by some players who aren’t even on Tour at the moment, like Amanda Anisimova and Ajla Tomljanovic.

And Canadian Leylah Fernandez, who had a quarterfinal result to defend from a year and lost in the second round, saw her singles ranking plummets to just inside the top 100.

For the complete, updated WTA rankings, click here.

 

ON THE UPSWING

Elena Rybakina (KAZ): No. 4 ===========> No. 3 (Rybakina withdrew before her third-round match but by virtue of staying still and Jessica Pegula dropping, eached into a career-high No. 3. She has a Wimbledon title to defend in a few weeks – but no points, as they weren’t awarded in 2022. That’ll take some pressure off).

Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA): No. 14 ===========> No. 10 (Haddad Maia’s change-making run to the Roland Garros semis gets her into the top 10 for the first time, helped by Daria Kasatkina’s relatively early loss and loss of points).

Karolina Muchova (CZE): No. 43 ===========> No. 16 (After a long climb back in the rankings because of a number of injuries, Muchova’s finals effort in Paris gets her where the rightfully belongs by ability – in the top 20. It’ll get her seeded at Wimbledon, too, where her all-court skills should also shine).

Bernarda Pera (USA): No. 36 ===========> No. 27 (Pera, 28, is a pretty quiet one. But her fourh-round effort gets her into the top 30 for the first time, and a career high. She’s actually the No. 4 American behind Gauff, Pegula and Keys – not that this is likely to get her a BJK Cup invite, it seems).

Paula Badosa (ESP): No. 39 ===========> No. 34 (Badosa missed Roland Garros with a back injury, but still moves up five spots since she didn’t drop a ton of points and others did worse. From what we can see on social media, she’s using her down time productively. 🙂 )

Bianca Andreescu (CAN): No. 42===========> No. 37 (Andreescu will have to do some things in the next couple of weeks, if she wants to get seeded at Wimbledon. But at least it’s a start).

Jasmine Paolini (ITA): No. 53 ===========> No. 42 (Paolini lost in the second round in Paris, but went to Makarska ot play a WTA 125 on clay in Croatia and reached the final).

Lesia Tsurenko (UKR): No. 66 ===========> No. 45 (Tsurenko, 34, lops a third off her ranking with her fourth round in Paris, including a shocker of a win over Bianca Andreescu).

Peyton Stearns (USA): No. 69 ===========> No. 57 (Fresh out of college, Stearns in the upward ascent part of her early career where everything is a bonus. She’s at a new career high again).

Wang Xinyu (CHN): No. 80 ===========> No. 64 (The 21-year-old from China is close to a career high after a third-round effort in singles. That it ended in a double bagel at the hands of eventual champion Swiatek is the part she’ll probably forget. But that was eased somewhat by getting to winning the women’s doubles title final Hsieh Su-Wei).

Kamilla Rakhimova (RUS): No. 82 ===========> No. 65 (The 21-year-old Russian spent some time in Slam qualifying purgatory. But those days are in the rear-view mirror after a third-round effort at RG puts her at a career high).

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Elina Svitolina (UKR): No. 192 ===========> No. 73 (When you look at how much Muchova struggled after a break to get back into the top 100, there is Svitolina who does it in a matter of less than two months and a few tournaments, helped greatly by a quarterfinal effort in Paris which followed a title in Strasbourg the week before).

Elina Avanesyan (RUS): No. 134 ===========> No. 80 (The 20-year-old isn’t very known. But she went from the qualifying, to lucky loser, to the fourty round of the main draw and breaks into the top 100 for the first time).

Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP): No. 132 ===========> No. 82 (Sorribes Tormo will be remembered for other things this fortnight. But her fourth round in singles brings her actual ranking not that far away from her protected ranking of No. 68, as she returns from injury).

Clara Tauson (DEN): No. 127 ===========> No. 93 (Tauson, who got as high as No. 33 before injuries hit, qualifies and reaches the third round and defeats last year’s quarterfinalist Leylah Fernandez along the way).

Mirra Andreeva (RUS): No. 143 ===========> No. 101 (Andreeva, 16, qualified and made the third round, where she lost to fellow teenager Coco Gauff. She’s six points from the top 100 but still will have to qualify at Wimbledon, as the result came in after the entry deadline).

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS): No. 333 ===========> No. 115 (The mover of the week, as a quarter-final effort in Paris – a throwback effort for the 2021 finalist – finally gives her ranking a boost during a comeback season).

Carol Zhao (CAN): No. 178 ===========> No. 163 (If it feels like it’s been awhile since Zhao’s ranking was on the upswing, that’s probably accurate. She wins a round in the Roland Garros qualifying, and gets a little bump).

Wang Yafan (CHN): No. 355 ===========> No. 261 (The 29-year-old former No. 47 has kind of dropped off the radar. But she jumps nearly 100 spots with wins at ITFs in Karuizawa, Tokyo and Luzhou over the last few weeks. She lost just three sets total against an all-Chinese field in Luzkou and all Japanese fields – save one – in the two tournaments there).

ON THE DOWNSWING

Jessica Pegula (USA): No. 3 ===========> No. 5 (Pegula dropped a bit of a shocker in the third round to Elise Mertens, after getting a good break in the second round when Camila Giorgi retired after theh first set. She drops 300 net points from her 2022 result, but is still 1000 points ahead of No. 6 Ons Jabeur and 1,500 ahead of doubles partner Coco Gauff at No. 7).

Veronika Kudermetova (RUS): No. 11 ===========> No. 14 (Kudermetova went out in the first round, in a shocker to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova as she won just four games, and drops three spots in the rankings after making the quarterfinals a year ago).

Sloane Stephens (USA): No. 30 ===========> No. 38 (Stephens makes the fourth round in Paris, but still drops eight spots because she made the quarters last year. She’ll be unseeded at Wimbledon, which isn’t great news for somebody).

Camila Giorgi (ITA): No. 37 ===========> No. 47 (A drop from Giorgi, who went out in the second round when she retired after losing the first set to Camila Giorgi).

Shelby Rogers (USA): No. 34 ===========> No. 48 (A quiet RG for Rogers, who lost in the first round to Petra Martic after making the third round last year. She has a semifinal in ‘s-Hertogenbosch coming up for defence this week).

Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS): No. 47 ===========> No. 59 (The No. 1 Aussie has been out for awhile with injury; she hasn’t played ince the Billie Jean King Cup finals in Nov. 2022 – perhaps another victim of the Netflix Curse).

Martina Trevisan (ITA): No. 24 ===========> No. 63 (That Trevisan’s ranking was going to drop was pretty inevitable, as another semifinal run was unlikely. But with her first-round loss, she maximized that drop. Well, it was fun while it lasted).

Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR): No. 51 ===========> No. 71 (Sasnovich is a professional, reliable performer, which can lead to some nice runs. But she’s not quite good enough to consistently back up those results, which can lead to some bouncing around in the rankings. She made the quarterfinals last year, beating Raducanu and Kerber on the way; this year, she lost in the first round to Clara Tauson, taking just two games).

Leylah Fernandez (CAN): No. 49 ===========> No. 95 (A tough blow for Fernandez’s singles ranking, which will mean more qualifying at the bigger events – which didn’t go that well in the Middle East last winter with the tough fields there. On the plus side – a fun and wondrous run to the doubles final with Taylor Townsend).

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Kaia Kanepi (EST): No. 74 ===========> No. 96 (The 38-year-old Estonian, the 2000 Roland Garros junior girls’ champion – no lie – lost in the first round to Madison Keys and in the second round of a smaller event the second week, when she retired after losing the first set).

Jule Niemeier (GER): No. 76 ===========> No. 118 (The problem with a nice run at a major comes 52 weeks later, as Niemeier lost in the first round to Daria Kasatkina. A year ago, she qualified and lost in the first round to Sloane Stephens. But in the second week, she won the WTA 125 in Croatia. This year, she didn’t play it).

Jil Teichmann (SUI): No. 77 ===========> No. 123 (Just six weeks ago, Teichmann was ranked No. 30. But losing in the first round in Paris – to Sara Errani, if you can imagine – even offset a bit by a quarterfinal in a WTA 125 the second week, drops her out of the top 100 for the first time since April, 2019. Less than a year ago, she was at a career-high No. 21.).

Sofia Kenin (USA): No. 121 ===========> No. 125 (It’s officially crisis time – again, for Team Sonya, who lost in the first round of Roland Garros qualifying in a shocker to French wild card Margaux Touvroy. She also lost Saturday in the first round of qualies in Nottingham to, bless her, Sonay Kartal. And she continues to only have dad as coach, no matter what).

Emma Raducanu (GBR): No. 107 ===========> No. 128 (Raducanu will be out for awhile, so this number will keep dropping even if in the end, it won’t make that much different in terms of the tournaments she wants to play when she returns from multiple surgeries. She could well be supplanted as the British No. 1 by Jodie Burrage, three spots behind and Katie Swan, six spots behind).

Alison Riske (USA): No. 85 ===========> No. 137 (Riske had been out since Indian Wells, but came back to play in Paris only to lose in the first round to Mirra Andreeva. She also lost in the first round of the Surbiton ITF last week. Riske hasn’t won a main-draw match all season, in eight tries. The first and most recent losses came to Viktorija Golubic).

Amanda Anisimova (USA): No. 90 ===========> No. 147 (On an indefinite break, the 21-year-old drops the points from a fourth round last year. She has a quarterfinal 2022 result at Wimbledon coming up as well.  Before she stopped playing after Madrid, she had won just two matches).

THE CANADIANS

THE ROAD TO SHENZHEN (Singles)

THE ROAD TO SHENZHEN (Doubles)

 

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