WTA Rankings Report – As of Feb. 19, 2024

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A Masters 1000 sucks all the WTA oxygen out of the air in any given week, with no other WTA events on the docket as a result most of the time.

So the focus was on Doha, where Iga Swiatek overcame a slow start against her nemesis, Elena Rybakina, and won her third straight title in Qatar going away.

Meanwhile, Jelena Ostapenko – who has been playing like a top-10 player much of the season so far, gets that made official.

She’s been knocking on the door for awhile; now she’s walked through it.

ATP Rankings Report – as of Feb. 19, 2024

 

For the complete, updated WTA rankings, click here.

Jelena Ostapenko (LAT): No. 11 =========> No. 9 (Between singles and doubles, Ostapenko has already played 29 matches this year – and she’s 24-5. She was 22-3 before coming into Doha, where she lost in the second round of both. But she’s back in the top 10 for the first time since May, 2018, when she was a career high No. 5).

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS): No. 32 =========> No. 24 (At 32, Pavlyuchenkova is just three years removed from her Roland Garros final. But after a few years in the wilderness – taking time to heal up various injuries and slowly making her way back – she’s playing well again and after making the Doha semifinals and beating Kasatkina and Vondrousova on the way, she’s become a threat again. With her improved ranking, she won’t be a dangerous floater any more as she’ll be seeded at Indian Wells and Miami).

Victoria Azarenka (BLR): No. 31 =========> No. 27 (Azarenka gets back into the top 30 with a juicy win over Ostapenko and a run to the quarterfinals).

Leylah Fernandez (CAN): No. 38 =========> No. 33 (Fernandez has had her share of tough draws as her ranking dropped and she fought to get it back. But she had a super run in Doha, beating Samsonova and Badosa and Zheng and now, she’ll also be seeded at Indian Wells and Miami and that could lead to more good results. She gets qualifier Bernarda Pera Monday in Dubai).

Lesia Tsurenko (UKR): No. 37 =========> No. 34 (The 34-year-old withdrew from Doha before her third-round match against Naomi Osaka – and after beating Ons Jabeur at basically a “home” event. But she still moves up three spots and given the number of times she retires or withdraws in any given year, it’s a game of mirrors as to how she keeps her ranking where it is – including Sunday, when she was to play her first round in Dubai but withdrew again).

Karolina Pliskova (CZE): No. 59 =========> No. 36 (Pliskova rose from the almost-done the last two weeks, winning in Cluj and going right to the Middle East and making the Doha semis before running out of gas. Prior to that two-week run, she was ranked No. 78, so she basically gut that in half. It was a lot of tennis in a compact period, though, plus the travel involved. So hopefully it won’t be too tough to recover for the big events to come).

Danielle Collins (USA): No. 63 =========> No. 46 (Collins, who qualified for the second straight week, made the quarters in Doha and moves back into the top 50. She’s not playing Dubai this week).

Erika Andreeva (RUS): No. 106 =========> No. 99 (At a career best last week, Andreeva squeaks into the top 100 for the first time after she qualified and won a round in Doha. She joins her younger sister Mirra there, but lost in the first round of qualifying in Dubai, so the 19-year-old can’t make more moves).

Timea  Babos (HUN): No. 179 =========> No. 171 (The 30-year-old former No. 25 rises again, just by winning a round in qualifying in both Doha and Dubai. She had fallen as far as No. 376 less than a year ago, and kind of fell off the map for quite awhile. But she’s on her way back).

Julia Avdeeva (RUS): No. 246=========> No. 201 (Avdeeva, 21, was quite a good junior – and looks like Keri Russell from some angles– but her progress in the pros has been slow and steady. She wins the ITF in Altenkirchen which will vault her up to just vapors away from the top 200 for the first time).

Polona Hercog (SLO): No. 233 =========> No. 222 (Hercog, a former No. 35 who is now 33, was out a full year from May 2022 to May 2023, and came back with no official ranking. She started by playing lower-level ITFs in Turkey as she makes a comeback. She made a quarterfinal and a final  at $40Ks in the last two weeks and moved up about 45 spots in all).

Emma Raducanu (GBR): No. 262 =========> No. 250 (Slowly but surely although it’s going to be a bumpy road for the 2021 US Open champion. She lost in the first round in Doha to Kalinina, putting up a fight in the second set after being blitzed in the first).

Naomi Osaka (JPN): No. 747 =========> No. 286 (Osaka showed some excellent flashes in Doha, until she lost again to Pliskova, and looked to be dealing with a right back. She was scheduled to play a third tournament in a row this week in Dubai, but pulled out of the draw).

Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL): No. 706 =========> No. 509 (If it feels like Van Uytvanck has come back from injury numerous times in the last few years, it’s because she has. The last time, in October after being out eight months, she won her first tournament back. This time, after a further 2 1/2-month absence, she made the Altenkirchen ITF final).

Maria Sakkari (GRE): No. 9 =========> No. 11 (Sakkari, who sacked her coach this week after losing in the second round of Doha, drops out of the top 10 for the first time since Sept. 2021, when she entered for the first time. That’s quite a streak, but she’s been flailing this season and sooner or later, it was going to show).

Mirra Andreeva (RUS): No. 33 =========> No. 38 (As quick as her rise was in 2023, the 16-year-old now comes up against having to match all of those results and do better, if she wants to take the next step. That includes some 450 points at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. She didn’t play Doha, and dropped a first-round match to Peyton Stearns in the first round of Dubai Sunday, in her first match since the Australian Open).

Belinda Bencic (SUI): No. 36 =========> No. 44 (This will be the trend, as Bencic is nesting in anticipation of her first child).

Sofia Kenin (USA): No. 45 =========> No. 55 (Kenin is sort of treading water these days, almost a pause after a herculean – and lengthy – effort to even get herself back into the top 100 after missing a lot of time two years ago. She lost in the first round in Doha, and again to Sorana Cirstea in the first round in Dubai).

Kamilla Rakhimova (RUS): No. 87 =========> No. 98 (Rakhimova lost in the final round of qualifying in both Doha and Dubai, and drops points from winning a $60K ITA in Irapuato, Mexico a year ago).

WTA Rankings Report – As of Feb. 12, 2024

 

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