–

TORONTO – A WTA 1000 means a lot of changes, and the end of the Montreal event on the WTA is no different even if the champion, in the end, didn’t come out nowhere.

Jessica Pegula won her 2nd WTA 1000 tournament, after the one in Guadalajara last fall, and definitely got the long end of the stick on the scheduling as she was always ahead of the game with the rain.

Of course, she also defeated world No. 1 Iga Swiatek on the way. So fair play to her.

Pegula had already moved up from No. 4 to a career-high No. 3 after Washington. So she stays there, but puts a little space between herself and Elena Rybakina.

There were actually no changes in the top 10 this week, although five of them earned net points.

There’s a lot of movement in the doubles year-end race as well.

ATP Rankings Report – As of Aug. 14, 2023

For the complete, updated rankings picture, click here.

ON THE UPSWING

Liudmila Samsonova (RUS): No. 18 ========> No. 12 (Samsonova had tough luck with the scheduling, having to come back to play the final later Sunday after beating Rybakina in three sets in the semifinal. Still, She moves up to tie her career high. And along the way she defeated Katerina Siniakova, Zheng Qinwen, Aryna Sabalenka, Belinda Bencic and Elena Rybakina. Massive run. Samsonova faces qualifier Linda Noskova in her opener in Cincinnati).

Danielle Collins (USA): No. 48 ========> No. 34 (Collins beat Genie Bouchard in the qualifying and ended up making the quarterfinals. She is putting herself in a position to be seeded if she can do something this week. The wild card faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her opener in Cincinnati.)

Alycia Parks (USA): No. 47 ========> No. 40 (A career high for the 22-year-old American, who qualified and reached the second round in Montreal. She lost in the final round of qualifying in Cincinnati).

Wang Xiyu (CHN): No. 71 ========> No. 57 (Wang won the high-level ITF in Landisville, PA. And as the stop seed in the qualifying in Cincinnati she actually got a first-round bye; crazy there was no one to fill that slot. She did qualify and faces Mayer Sherif in her opener in Cincinnati.)

Katie Boulter (GBR): No. 72 ========> No. 60 (Already at a career high last week, Boulter qualified and won a round in Montreal, moving her to another career high. She lost in the first round of qualies in Cincinnati).

Leylah Fernandez (CAN): No. 81 ========> No. 72 (Making the third round in Montreal helped the Montreal native’s case, although she drew Emma Navarro in the first round in Cincinnati and was defeated. So now she is idle this week; she’s not even playing doubles in Cincinnati with Taylor Townsend).

Greet Minnen (BEL): No. 113 ========> No. 99 (Minnen is back in the top 100 after she made the final at the WTA 125 in Kozerki).

Rebecca Marino (CAN): No. 103 ========> No. 101 (Marino’s ranking took a tumble out of the top 100 after D.C., where she qualfied and got to the final round a year – but didn’t play this year. And then she lost in the first round of Montreal to Katie Boulter, but she moves up a couple after winning a round in the Cincinnati qualifying when Camila Giorgi retired in the third set. She, like her friend Fernandez, lost to Navarro).

Dayana Yastremska (UKR): No. 149 ========> No. 112 (The former No. 21 won the WTA 125 in Kozerki and made her ranking look a whole lot better in the process).

Lulu Sun (SUI): No. 262 ========> No. 189 (The 22-year-old from Switzerland moves to the top 200 for the first time, and a career high, after winning the ITF in Brasilia).

Kristina Mladenovic (FRA): No. 206 ========> No. 190 (The former world No. 10, now 30, is grinding it out in South America and by making the Brasilia semifinals gets back into the top 200. She’s at a similar event in Barranquilla this week).

Jennifer Brady (USA): No. 584 ========> No. 432 (Brady adds her second-round effort in Montreal to her effort in D.C. the previous week and moves up more on the list. She faces Donna Vekic in her opener in Cincinnati.)

ON THE DOWNSWING

Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA): No. 12 ========> No. 19 (The Brazilian, who made the Toronto final a year ago, goes in the reverse direction to Samsonova as she drops way down after losing in the second round in Montreal. She faces a tough ask in Cincinnati as her first opponent will be Karolina Muchova)

Zhu Lin (CHN): No. 36 ========> No. 46 (Lin lost in the first round in Montreal to Karolina Pliskova and drops points from winning the high-level ITF in Landisville, PA a year ago. She faces Kalinina in her opener in Cincinnati.)

Zhang Shuai (CHN): No. 43 ========> No. 48 (It continues to be tough for Zhang, especially in singles, as she loses in the first round in Montreal. Zhang now has a 16-match singles losing streak … Bless her, she’s skipping Cincinnati).

Bianca Andreescu (CAN): No. 41 ========> No. 51 (The Canadian lost her first-round match to in Montreal to qualifier Camila Giorgi rather hastily, and then pulled out of Cincinnati with what she described as a small stress fracture in her back first suffered in D.C. the previous week).

Yulia Putintseva (KAZ): No. 61 ========> No. 79 (Putintseva lost in the qualies in Montreal, but made the second round as a lucky loser, but drops points because of her quarterfinal a year ago in Toronto. She lost in the final round of qualifying in Cincinnati).

Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS): No. 68 ========> No. 83 (Still no sign of Tomljanovic, who appears to have withdrawn from the entire hard-court summer in North America).

Jil Teichmann (SUI): No. 122 ========> No. 149 (Idle last week, Teichman was ranked No. 21 a year ago, when she made the third round in Toronto, losing to Simona Halep. This year, she didn’t play at all as her ranking continues to tumble).

Alison Riske (USA): No. 146 ========> No. 181 (Riske has played little this year, and she drops points from her third-round efort in Toronto a year ago. Riske has played just a few events since Indian Wells: Roland Garros and three events on her favorite grass. In 10 tournaments, she hasn’t won a single main-draw match. She has third-round points in Cincinnati and round-of-16 points at the US Open coming up for renewal in the next few weeks).

Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP): No. 204 ========> No. 266 (There were rumblings about her coming back from her sabbatical, weren’t there? Pretty quiet lately. Muguruza drops her points from a third round in Toronto a year ago).

Amanda Anisimova (USA): No. 243 ========> No. 273 (Same for the 21-year-old Anisimova, who is on an undefined, long term break and drops her points from last year’s Toronto tournament).

Coco Vandeweghe (USA: No. 183 ========> No. 277 (Vandeweghe drops points fro winning a WTA 125 in Massachusetts a year ago. She beat Parks, Clara Tauson, Wang Qiang and Bernarda Pera in that event. She 31-year-old lost in the first round of the WTA 125 in Stanford this week).

Simona Halep (ROU): No. 58 ========> No. 578 (The bulk of the points for Halep, who hasn’t played since last year’s US Open, drop off as she was the defending champion in Canada. She and coach Patrick Mouratoglou have been eerily quiet of late, after she came out forcefully against the authorities asking for her case for a positive doping test to be adjudicated).