WTA Rankings Report – As of July 29, 2024

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Most of the top players will not be able to earn ranking points this coming week, as they can’t get any for playing the Olympics.

But others will get a leg up in D.C. And many did the last last week in a pair of WTA tournaments on clay.

Iga Swiatek will actually drop 280 points next week, as she’s not playing the WTA tournament in Poland she played last year. But you’d have to go outside the top 20 to find the next player defending points.

Most years, they’re still on a little post-Wimbledon vacay.

For the complete, updated WTA Rankings for Monday, click here.

ATP Rankings Report – As of July 29, 2024

Mirra Andreeva (RUS): No. 32 ===========> No. 23 (Andreeva won her first career title in Iasi, Romania –a newly-upgraded WTA 125, up to a 250. It ties her career high. She then had to hustle to Paris, where played the winner of the other tournament last week, Magda Linette, in the first round of the Olympics. That did … not go so well.

Magda Linette (POL): No. 48 ===========> No. 41 (Linette won the WTA in Prague, beating her countrywoman Magdalena Frech in the final. As for her first-round Olympics opponent, see above. She was the winner in straight sets, and moves on).

Magdalena Frech (POL): No. 57 ===========> No. 48 (Back in the top 50, where she peeked in for about for ranking weeks earlier this year. Frech made her first career WTA final in Prague).

Jaqueline Cristian (ROU): No. 61 ===========> No. 57 (Cristian not only reached a career best after making the quarters at her home-country event in Romania, she then went to Paris and upset homegirl Garcia in HER home-country Olympics. Pretty good weekend).

Elina Avanesyan (RUS): No. 76 ===========> No. 58 (Also at a career high is the 21-year-old Avanesyan, who is just 21 but sort of looks older. It’s been a quiet, steady rise from a ranking of No. 134 back in May 2023. The week took its toll, though; she played a great first set vs. Andreeva in Iasi and had the Russian serving to stay in the match at 4-5 in the second set. But then she didn’t win a game, retiring down 0-4 in the third).

Chloe Paquet (FRA): No. 106 ===========> No. 98 (Paquet, who is 30, FINALLY edges into the top 100 for the first in her career after reaching the semifinals in Iasi. Not everyone can aim for No. 1. Everyone has a milestone. This is a testament to perseverance – along with a lot of federation help that many players don’t have the luxury of receiving).

Alycia Parks (USA): No. 124 ===========> No. 102 (Parks has had an objectively terrible year. But she took another great step in the right direction as she went through the qualifying at a WTA 125 in Poland – and ran the table to take the title. During the grass season she won a WTA 125 title in Gaiba, also from the qualifying and qualified at Wimbledon. She’s won 15 of her last 16 matches, and is just 15 points from getting back into the top 100. Prior to that, she had been 1-14 since the Australian Open. Just less than a year ago, she was at a career-high No. 40).

Olga Danilovic (SRB): No. 148 ===========> No. 121 (Danilovic, who has only barely been inside the top 100 despite her pedigree and junior success, takes a nice step by making the semifinals in Iasi).

Kristina Mladenovic (FRA): No. 232 ===========> No. 198 (This former top-10 player is 31, and grinding it out in the lower levels to try to get some semblance of her former glory back. It hasn’t been easy; she’s been at it a couple of years now without a lot to show for it. But she reaches the final of the $100K ITF in Portugal squeezes back into the top 200).

Clervie Ngounoue (USA): No. 363 ===========> No. 299 (Things are looking up for the 18-year-old American, who qualified at the $40K ITF in Dallas won the whole thing. And she already has a main-draw wild card into the WTA 500 in D.C. so, assuming she has any gas left in the tank, who knows what she might do).

Victoria Mboko (CAN): No. 416 ===========> No. 358 (Mboko won a $25K in Germany two weeks ago, her third ITF title and the first outside Canada. But those points are just coming on now. She relocated to Belgium awhile back, leaving the Tennis Canada bubble, and the WTA lists her as having Olivier Jeunehomme as a coach. Jeunehomme has worked with Dayana Yastremska, Maryna Zanevska, Clara Tauson and Lulu Sun, among others).

Laura Samsonova (CZE): No. 634 ===========> No. 373 (Known as Laura Samson in most places, the 16-year-old Czech made the semifinals in Prague, where she ran out of gas. She was the Roland Garros junior runner-up this year, and she leaps up to a new career high with the effort).

Nina Stojanovic (SRB): No. 729 ===========> No. 656 (Stojanovic, a 27-year-old Serb, had a career high of No. 81 but is just making her way back from an extended injury absence. She moves up by winning a round at the Warsaw WTA 125. She’ll be remembered this time of the year as the partner Novak Djokovic dropped when he withdrew from the mixed doubles at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago just before the bronze medal match. She was the innocent subject of the usual nasty trolls, who “blamed” her for Djokovic being tired out for the singles and therefore not winning a medel. Hard to know if she’ll be ranked high enough for the next one in 2028, when she’ll be 31. But it’s something to shoot for).

Clara Burel (FRA): No. 44 ===========> No. 55 (Burel didn’t play last week, as she prepared for her first Olympic Games and the only one she’ll play in her home country. She faced Katerina Siniakova in the first round – a late replacement for Marketa Vondrousova. And she defeated her)

Diane Parry (FRA): No. 52 ===========> No. 59 (Parry is another Frenchwoman who sacrificed a little bit for this one-in-a-lifetime Olympics at home. She’s also playing doubles with Caroline Garcia. Parry drops points from a semi-final effort at the now-defunct WTA 250 in Lausanne a year ago. Parry defeated Nadia Podoroska in the first round of the Olympics on Sunday).

Elisabetta Cocciaretto (ITA): No. 46 ===========> No. 61 (The Italian drops her pints from winning Lausanne last year – her first and so far, only WTA Tour title – as she was idle last week).

Davia Saville is an Olympian, even if it was far from the week she dreamed of.

Daria Saville (AUS): No. 77 ===========> No. 92 (Saville was an Olympian this week, and so didn’t play last week, so she drops the points from going from the qualifying to the semifinals at the Hamburg 250 last year. Saville passed on the opportunity to get into the Olympics singles as an alternate – it went to Sara Errani instead – and she and doubles partner Ellen Perez drew Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the first round of doubles. So it was a quick Olympics).

Laura Siegemund (GER): No. 64 ===========> No. 93 (Siegemund worked pretty hard to get her singles ranking back into the top 70. But she drops her points from reaching the final at the Warsaw WTA 250 a year ago. She played No. 8 seed Danielle Collins in the first round of the Olympics, and retired in the second set)

Arantxa Rus (NED): No. 62 ===========> No. 103 (A tough blow for this Olympian, 33. after she didn’t play last week. She drops points from winning her first WTA title in Hamburg a year ago, and slides out of the top 100. She was to Anhelina Kalinina in the first round of the Olympics, But Kalinina pulled out last minute with a sore throat. She defeated alternate Olivia Gadecki instead).

Noma Noha Akugue (GER): No. 169 ===========> No. 273 (Akugue, still just 20, seemed to be one of the rare young players on the rise in German tennis. But it’s been a tough slog this year. And now she drops her points from making the Hamburg final a year ago as a wild card. Akugue lost in the first round in Iasi; she tumbled down some 100 spots in the rankings).

Asia Muhammad (USA): No. 538 ===========> No. 759 (Now 33, Muhammad has become a fine doubles specialist. So it’s probably not a shock to see her singles ranking down this far. We first saw her play in junior Davis Cup, when she maybe 15. She was on a team with Coco Vandeweghe. And we thought she was going to be … SOMETHING. Great athlete who was serve-volleying in singles at that age. But for whatever reasons, it didn’t quite work out for her; she peaked at No. 124 in singles. There are far more of those stories than there are success stories. But at least she found her niche and is making a living. She has nine career doubles title and sits at No. 32 in the rankings).