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No changes in the top 15 this week, despite the presence of most of them in the grass-court tournament that were played.
But the good news is for Jessica Pegula, who missed the entire clay-court season but battled her way to the title in Berlin.
Pegula had to sleep on a couple of suspended matches in the last few days. And she had to complete her win over No. 1 seed Coco Gauff Sunday before beating Anna Kalinskaya in a third-set tiebreak for the title.
She had to save match points along the way.
In Birmingham, Yulia Putintseva wins her first grass-court title. And no one was more surprised than she was.
For the complete rankings update, click here.
Victoria Azarenka (BLR): No. 19 ==========> No. 16 (Azarenka made the Berlin semifinals, losing to Anna Kalinskaya and looking less than 100 per cent. She ended up pulling out of Bad. Homburg this week due to illness, and is heading right to London to recover and prepare for Wimbledon).
Anna Kalinskaya (RUS): No. 24 ==========> No. 17 (Kalinskaya just about maximized in Berlin, where she would have slipped past Azarenka had she won her first career WTA tournament, but no more. She defeated three former Grand Slam champions along the way, although with the passage of time no one will remember she had two retirements on the way. She had so many match points against Jessica Pegula that she will be rerunning this event for awhile, just as she did when it appeared she was on her way to victory against Jasmine Paolini in Dubai – only to lose 7-5 in the third. Still, a new arrival in the top 20 and a career high. She also leaps into the No. 9 spot in the race to the WTA Finals. Kalinskaya, too, withdrew from Bad Homburg).
Linda Noskova (CZE): No. 28 ==========> No. 26 (Another career high for Noskova, even though she lost in the second round in Berlin. The 19-year-old will play lucky loser Taylor Townsend in Bad Homburg – it was to be Kalinskaya, but she withdrew after the Berlin final).
Katerina Siniakova (CZE): No. 30 ==========> No. 27 (Inside the top 30 for the first time in singles for the 28-year-old, who went from the qualifying to the quarterfinals in Berlin. She plays Clara Burel in the first round in Bad Homburg).
Leylah Fernandez (CAN): No. 33 ==========> No. 30 (Fernandez had every shot against Ajla Tomljanovic in the Birmingham quarterfinals, but ended up having her serve desert her. Still, she moves up three spots and nails a seed at Wimbledon. It was likely anyway, but she would have needed a withdrawal. Fernandez gets No. 7 seed Barbora Krejcikova in the first round in Eastbourne).
Yulia Putintseva (KAZ): No. 41 ==========> No. 34 (No one was as shocked as the Kazakh when she came up with her first career grass-court event in Birmingham on Sunday. But she ebulliently accepted the trophy and might have a shot at a seed at Wimbledon, if things break badly for a couple of other players).
Caroline Dolehide (USA): No. 61 ==========> No. 52 (Dolehide is just 30 points from getting back into the top 50 after going from lucky loser to quarterfinalist in Birmingham).
Elina Avanesyan (RUS): No. 74 ==========> No. 81 (Avanesyan’s ranking has been going in the same direction all year – up. but after losing in the first round of Birmingham, she drops the points from going from the qualies to the quarters in Berlin last year. She did qualify at Eastbourne, though, so has an opportunity to move up again as she meets the comebacking Karolina Muchova in the first round).
Anna Bondar (HUN): No. 106 ==========> No. 93 (Bondar, 27, gets back into the top 100 after winning the Olomouc ITF on clay. Too late for the main draw at Wimbledon, though; she’ll have to play the qualifying).
Alycia Parks (USA): No. 148 ==========> No. 121 (After a long streak of futility and a drop of more than 100 spots from her career high No. 40 less than a year ago, the 23-year-old goes from the qualifying to the title at the grass-court WTA 125 in Gaiba, Italy to make a dent. She boosts her confidence ahead of Wimbledon qualifying – where she’s not even seeded. She also won the doubles with Hailey Baptiste, boosting that ranking from No. 166 to No. 40. Great news for the big server).
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS): No. 190 ==========> No. 135 (Tomljanovic has had a terrible two years with injuries. But she’s back for the grass and makes a statement by getting to the final in Birmingham. She had already been in the main draw with a protected ranking, but the AELTC decided to award her the last remaining wild card instead. Yeah, we don’t get it either, but good for her. She withdrew from Eastbourne this week, after the effort in Birmingham).
Zeynep Sonmez (TUR): No. 157 ==========> No. 136 (Career high for the 22-year-old from Turkey as she qualifies and wins a round in Berlin).
Rebecca Marino (CAN): No. 144 ==========> No. 140 (It’s not a huge jump in the rankings, as Marino went from the qualifying to the quarterfinals at Birmingham a year ago. But the big thing is that it’s a title – and four of the five players she defeated were ranked higher than she was. In a perfect world, as has happened in the past, it would have earned her a last-minute main-draw wild card into Wimbledon. As it is, she brings a 9-4 grass-court this year, and her big serve, into the qualifying this week.)
Marina Stakusic (CAN): No. 173 ==========> No. 164 (Stakusic hits another career high after winning a couple of matches at the Ilkley Challenger. She’s holding her own in her first grass-court experience, and will play the Wimbledon qualifying for the first time this week).
Ella McDonald (GBR): No. 783 ==========> No. 640 (The 18-year-old, just a few months younger than Emma Raducanu was when she WON the US Open, will be the next great British hope as she went from the qualifying to the quarterfinals at the Ilkley Challenger. She lost in the final round of Eastbourne qualifying, and playing that means they can’t even give her a wild card into the Wimbledon qualifying).
Julie Pastikova (CZE): No. 9999 ==========> No. 814 (Another young Czech from their prolific tennis factory gets on the rankings board for the first time, as she reaches the final of the Olomouc ITF after turning 16 just a few weeks ago).
Donna Vekic (CRO): No. 39 ==========> No. 49 (Vekic lost in the second round in Berlin to eventual champion Jessica Pegula, and takes the hit in her ranking after making the final a year ago (beating Rybakina and Sakkari on the way). She’s already through in the first round of Bad Homburg and will play No. 6 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round).
Ashlyn Krueger (USA): No. 70 ==========> No. 87 (The 20-year-old had been close to a career high but she lost second round last week in Birmingham and drops all those points from winning the Gaiba WTA 125 a year ago. She qualified at Eastbourne and will play fellow qualifier Viktorija Golubic).
Olga Danilovic (SRB): No. 104 ==========> No. 116 (Danilovic, who didn’t play last week, drops points from the Gaiba semifinals last year. She’s in the Wimbledon qualifying and will be seeded).
Petra Kvitova (CZE): No. 55 ==========> No. 126 (Kvitova has bigger fish fry as she’s about to give birth to her first child. But she drops her points from winning Berlin – was it just a year ago?)
Linda Fruhvirtova (CZE): No. 132 ==========> No. 147 (Fruhvirtova lost in the second round of qualies at Birmingham last weekend, and drops her points from the quarterfinals a year ago. She’s in the Wimbledon qualifying this week).
Venus Williams (USA): No. 444 ==========> No. 516 (Not sure why some people still thought 44-year-old Venus Williams might get a wild card for Wimbledon (even if they did give her one last year). She’s barely played – just one match at Indian Wells and one in Miami. And so she drops a few points from last year, when she won that crazy match against the now-retired Camila Giorgi in the first round of Birmingham).
Eugenie Bouchard (CAN): No. 491 ==========> No. 522 (Bouchard drops out of the top 500 after points from winning a qualifying match in Berlin a year ago drop off. This week, she’s punditing on Tennis Channel and said in a recent interview she’ll start training next month for a planned dip-in back into tennis at the National Bank Open in Toronto in August).
Mirjam Bjorklund (SWE): No. 312 ==========> No. 594 (Denis Shapovalov’s intended was out for a few months earlier this year after a surgical procedure. And her return has been in dribs and drabs. She drops a huge chunk of points earned by winning the Ilkley Challenger last year, after losing in the first round of qualifying this year. Bjorklund had been in the Wimbledon qualifying on a protected ranking of No. 145; but she withdrew last week with an ongoing back injury).
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One of the best pics of Rebecca Marino. And the WTA Rankings Reports are compact nuggets.
If Bouchard is planning on playing in Toronto in August, does that mean she already knows that she will be getting a wild card? I didn’t think tournaments gave out that info so far in advance of a tournament. Tks.
Well, she’s Bouchard.
I mean, I have ZERO clue why Tennis Canada would give her a wild card two years in a row, when she’s not even a part-time player.
It’s an insult to all the others players who work hard all year. And it’s not as though Bouchard didn’t let Tennis Canada down on NUMEROUS occasions by declining to play Fed Cup.
But she got one last year into the qualifying in Montreal. So I guess she knows, or assumes, that this will happen again.
Bouchard has more wildcard lives than 23 cats. Even with a lousy ranking these last 5 years she has shown incredible resilience in getting into all manner of events here, there and everywhere. Only count her out at your peril …….
She hasn’t gotten into many lately.