WTA Rankings Report – As of Feb. 26, 2024

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A WTA 1000 with a lot of upsets will mean some big moves up the ranking charts.

And this week it’s Anna Kalinskaya, who went from the qualies to the final, and champion Jasmine Paolini, who moves into the top 15.

No change in the top five although Elena Rybakina narrowed the gap with No. 3 Coco Gauff to just over 125 points.

ATP Rankings Report – As of Feb. 26, 2024

For the complete, updated WTA rankings picture, click here.

Maria Sakkari (GRE): No. 11 =========> No. 9 (After falling out of the top 10 last week, Sakkari is back in on a combination of her winning two matches, Karolina Muchova having surgery, and Jelena Ostapenko basically defending last year’s points but not much more. Having parted ways with longtime coach Thomas Hill, let’s see what the future holds).

Jasmine Paolini (ITA): No. 26 =========> No. 14 (The 28-year-old’s huge win in Dubai is a huge game-changer for her in terms of the rankings, as she leaps into the top 15 and will be able to take advantage of some better draws for the foreseeable future. The thing is, she was already No. 26 in the world. Which is a statement on the competitive landscape at present).

Anna Kalinskaya (RUS): No. 40 =========> No. 24 (From the qualifying to the final, the 25-year-old Russian had the biggest week of her career. And being in the top 25 and a career high will also get her seeded at the majors, and also at the 1000 events coming up in Indian Wells and Miami. That’ll give her a leg up on the draws).

Magdalena Frech (POL): No. 53=========> No. 42 (Low key but terrific start to the season for the 26-year-old from Poland, who qualified and reached the third round in Dubai. She’s at a career high, and with that ranking can even get her straight into the one-week 1000s, if she keeps up the good work).

Hailey Baptiste (USA): No. 114 =========> No. 106 (Baptiste, still just 22, is one of those player who got a lot of press early on, as she beat Madison Keys at the Citi Open, which is right down the street from where she grew up. But it’s taken some time. With a semifinal effort at the WTA 125 in Puerto Vallarta this week, Baptiste is at a career high. And she’s less than 50 points away from the top 200. Considering she was at No. 270 about a year ago, it’s been steady progress).

McCartney Kessler (USA): No. 153 =========> No. 120 (Kessler, 24, earned the reciprocal wild card from the USTA into the Australian Open. And it seems to have given her career a bit of energy. She lost her qualifying match in Puerto Vallarta this week, then got in as a lucky loser. And on Sunday she defeated Aussie wild card Taylah Preston to win the WTA 125 event and move up to another career high).

Lulu Sun (SUI): No. 181 =========> No. 151 (Sun, now 22, was a pretty hot junior – she reached the top 15 with some tremendous results on clay. She could technically even represent New Zealand as she was born there, but flies the Swiss flag. She got a wild card into Dubai and won a round. And that’s good enough to move her up to a career high from what was already a career high).

***Lulu Sun at the 2024 Australian Open.***

Taylah Preston (AUS): No. 192 =========> No. 153 (A lot of her similarly-ranked Aussies are home playing ITFs. But Preston made the tip to North America made it to the final at the WTA 125 in Mexico on a wild card).

Jamie Loeb (USA): No. 351 =========> No. 296 (The 28-year-old wins the $40K ITF in Mexico City, to get her ranking back into the top 300. Loeb’s career high was No. 132 back in Feb. 2018).

Carson Branstine (CAN): No. 617 =========> No. 534 (It’s a slog trying to move up the rankings at the ITF level; Branstine is 23-4 on the season but has won less than $10,000 so far this year. But the Can-American is doing a good job. She’s into the top 600 after qualifying and reaching the final of an ITF in Antalya two weeks ago. A month ago, Branstine was outside the top 900).

Madison Keys (USA): No. 16 =========> No. 20 (Keys missed the Australian swing with a shoulder injury. And she hasn’t played since the Elite Trophy at the end of Oct. 2023. She drops some as her Dubai quarterfinal points from last year drop off. But the good news is that she doesn’t have a ton to defend in either Indian Wells or Miami. After that, though, it gets more complicated).

Barbora Krejcikova (CZE): No. 13 =========> No. 21 (Krejcikova looked to have a bad knee in Australia, after a lot of three-setters and a quarter-final run. She made it to Abu Dhabi, but her run was a bye, a retirement and a loss to Liudmila Samsonova. The defending champion in Dubai (she beat Begu, Kasatkina, Kvitova, Sabalenka, Pegula and Swiatek to win that title – a crazy week) didn’t play it this year. And she drops basically 900 points to drop out of the top 20.

A little Ukrainian corner:

Magda Linette (POL): No. 48 =========> No. 53 (In contrast to her countrywoman Frech, Linette – a former No. 19 – is not having a good season. And after losing in the first round of Dubai finds herself no longer the No. 2 player in Poland, but the No. 3 as Frech overtakes her).

Belinda Bencic (SUI): No. 44 =========> No. 57 (Not a meaningful number, as Bencic will return from maternity time with a protected ranking).

Camila Giorgi (ITA): No. 72 =========> No. 105 (Giorgi’s ranking is often a case of “follow the bouncing ball” anyway. And then she comes up with a big result to get it back to where it should be. But being outside the top 100 is a fairly serious deal in terms of the majors. And she’s not in either of the American events this week).

Linda Fruhvirtova (CZE): No. 122 =========> No. 137 (Everything seemed so easy for the elder of the Fruhvirtova sisters but Linda, who is still just 18, has had a lot more trouble staying in the top 100 than she did getting there. This, it should be said, is not the least bit unusual. But that’s down the rankings, after a second-round exit in Puerto Vallarta. She won her first round of qualifying in San Diego Saturday, and will be looking for the main draw there).

Rebecca Peterson (SWE): No. 130 =========> No. 202 (The 28-year-old Swede has been a fairly rare sight on the WTA of late, having played a pair of $60K ITFs in Europe since the Australian Open. And with the points from her 2023 run from the qualifying to the Merida final a. year ago dropping off, she is out of the top 200. Upcoming is a run from the qualifying to the fourth round of Indian Wells, which is up for defence. Without those points she’ll be nearly down to No. 300).

Caty McNally (USA): No. 169 =========> No. 217 (McNally was out for six months after last year’s Wimbledon and is just getting back now. She has a protected ranking of about No. 71, which will help. McNally lost in the second round in Puerto Vallarta. But she won the doubles at the Transylvania Open a few weeks ago, in her first tournament back. So it’s probably not far.

Amanda Anisimova (USA): No. 216 =========> No. 253 (Anisimova is in a similar situation to McNally, with a protected ranking about 10 spots higher. She was to play in Puerto Vallarta, and did get as far as Mexico. But in the end she was injured and withdrew. She reportedly has a wild card into Indian Wells, so she won’t have to use up a valuable spot with her PR).

Shelby Rogers (USA): No. 262 =========> No. 302 (Another returning American with a protected ranking around No. 50, Rogers didn’t play between losing to Elena Rybakina in the first round of Wimbledon last summer, to losing in the first round of the Australian Open last month to Emma Raducanu. The American won her first-round qualifying match in Austin easily on Saturday; it was her first win of any kind since the second round of Madrid last April. But she retired early in the second set of her final-round match. Rogers drops points from a second-round effort in Dubai a year ago).

C’est avec beaucoup de fierté et de reconnaissance que je me présente sur la liste fédérale en tant que candidate pour représenter le MR. Je tiens à remercier Pierre-Yves Jeholet de m’avoir donné cette chance.

Le sport a toujours été au cœur de ma vie, et je crois fermement 1/2 pic.twitter.com/1pUtjPRLof

— Ysaline Bonaventure (@YsaBona) February 24, 2024

Ysaline Bonaventure (BEL): No. 297 =========> No. 332 (Bonaventure’s comeback from injury didn’t last long, as she retired in her qualifying match at the Australian Open against Katherine Sebov and then had knee surgery. But she’s already reinventing herself, as she is pivoting to the world of politics and standing as a candidate in elections in Belgium).