–

The week before a Grand Slam is often a buffet for outliers and surprises, as too many of the top players who do compete that week (more on the women’s side than the men’s, because the women don’t play best-of-five sets) are happy to get a couple of matches and vamoose.

So if the Eastbourne champion, unseeded Madison Keys, did have some grass-court priors, the same can’t be said for Bad Homburg, where Katerina Siniakova beat Lucia Bronzetti to win her first grass-court title.

Siniakova had been out for awhile, dealing with a wrist injury. So this was absolutely encouraging for her on the singles side, even though she’s the No. 1 doubles player in the world.

(For the complete, updated WTA rankings for July 3, click here).

ATP Rankings Report – As of July 3, 2023

ON THE UPSWING

Daria Kasatkina (RUS): No. 11 =========> No. 10 (By making the Eastbourne final, Kasatkina edges back into the top 10. She faces Caroline Dolehide in the first round at Wimbledon).

Madison Keys (USA): No. 25 =========> No. 18 (Keys had a great week at Eastbourne, and won her third grass-court title, her second at Eastbourne. It vaults her back into the top 20. She’s never done especially well at Wimbledon despite her grass gravitas. Will this be the year? She faces British wild card Sonay Kartal in the first round).

Katerina Siniakova (CZE): No. 52 =========> No. 32 (Siniakova would be seeded at Wimbledon if Monday’s rankings were used. But her title in Bad Homburg still brings her within one spot of her career high, which came in Oct. 2018. She has a tough first round at Wimbledon – No. 24 seed Zheng Qinwen).

Lucia Bronzetti (ITA): No. 65 =========> No. 47 (Bronzetti, obviously, benefited greatly when scheduled opponent Iga Swiatek withdrew before their semifinal match in Bad Homburg. Still, take it where you can get it. The 24-year-old Italian jumps into the the top 50 for the first time – Bad Homburg was already her … 18th tournament of 2023 (!!!!), and she’s earned nearly half a million already. She plays Jaqueline Cristian, who is on a protected ranking, in the first round at Wimbledon).

Camila Giorgi (ITA): No. 67 =========> No. 48 (Giorgi, too, used the opportunity at Eastbourne to make the semifinal and get back into the top 50. She benefited from a retirement by Jelena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals, after Ostapenko had basically hit her limit after an effort in singles and doubles in Birmingham. She plays newly-French Varvara Gracheva at Wimbledon).

Charleston — ***(Photo: MUSC Health Women’s Open/Chris Smith)***

Emma Navarro (USA): No. 60 =========> No. 55 (She’s a sneaky one, this one. Navarro hits another career high and is less than 30 ranking points out of a top-50 debut after making the Bad Homburg semifinals last week. Navarro began the year at No. 149, and has played a mix of ITFs and WTA-level tournaments. She plays No. 21 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova at Wimbledon).

Camila Osorio (COL): No. 81 =========> No. 71 (Osorio missed some time earlier this year because of injury. But she’s crawling her way back up the rankings and moves up 10 after qualifying and making the second round at Eastbourne. She faces Elisabetta Cocciaretto at Wimbledon).

Jodie Burrage (GBR): No. 128 =========> No. 108 (Burrage is taking full advantage of the grass-court season and rises to another career high, after making the main draw as one of many lucky losers in the field and winning a round in Eastbourne. A wild card into Wimbledon, she will play talented young American Caty McNally).

Valeria Savinykh (RUS): No. 243 =========> No. 194 (The 32-year-old Russian keeps grinding, with a victory (a late-night one at that) Sunday at a $40K ITF in Spain bringing her back into the top 200 for the first time in over a year).

Stacey Fung (CAN): No. 260 =========> No. 230 (The unheralded Canadian, 26 and out of the college ranks, gets the points from her title at a $25K ITF in Wichita, Kansas two weeks ago added on Monday. It’s a career high. And it shouldn’t take much more to earn her way into her first Grand Slam qualifying in New York. Hopefully Tennis Canada, which doesn’t reward college players enough, will take into consideration her solid results this season and give her a wild card into the Montreal qualifying. From No. 417 back in February, she has risen nearly 200 spots, the hard way).

Evgeniya Rodina (RUS): No. 314 =========> No. 291 (Rodina, 34, has been on a protected ranking of No. 73 as she returns to action after a long break. She moves back into the top 300 after winning a round at the Bad Homburg tournament).

Tamira Paszek (AUT): No. 485 =========> No. 422 (Paszek, still only 32, had her career high of No. 26 a decade ago, and has three carerer titles. She has come back to play pretty regularly in the last 2 1/2 years, after being gone a full year between March 2019 and March 2020, followed by the five-month pandemic stoppage – and two more years between 2017 and 2019. But she’s not gotten much purchase. She was even doing television commentary during Roland Garros. Her effort to go from qualifying to the semifinals at a $40K ITF in Spain last week was the best move she’s made in awhile).

ON THE DOWNSWING

Danielle Collins (USA): No. 48 =========> No. 52 (Collins, whose career high of No. 7 was exactly a year ago after Wimbledon 2022, has played sparingly this year and her last victory came in in March, in the second round of the Miami Open. She’s won just two matches at the WTA level since beating Kalinskaya and Muchova and going three sets with Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open in January. She meets Australia’s Julia Grabher in the first round at Wimbledon, without any grass-court prep).

Simona Halep (ROU): No. 50 =========> No. 54 (All is eerily quiet on the Halep side, as she continues to wait for her positive doping test to be adjudicated. Obviously, she’ll miss Wimbledon, where she reached the semifinals a year ago, losing to eventual champ Rybakina. There are no points that will fall off, though, because Wimbledon didn’t award ranking points in 2022).

Genie Bouchard (CAN): No. 218 =========> No. 221 (Bouchard’s efforts at Wimbledon qualifying ended in the first round, with a loss to No. 13 seed Greet Minnen. It’s hard to know where she goes from here, although you’d expect to see her at the National Bank Open in Montreal).