ATP Rankings Report – As of Aug. 26, 2024

–

No changes in the top 20 – none of whom played the last warmup tournament.

But some nice leaps from Alex Michelsen, Winston-Salem champion Lorenzo Sonego, Pablo Carreño Busta, Chris Eubanks and young American Learne Tien – who has having a great summer.

And watch for the comeback from Yibing Wu, who was out most of the year but finally returned last week at an ITF in China.

WTA Rankings Report – As of Aug. 26, 2024

For the complete, updated ATP Tour rankings for Monday, click here.

Lorenzo Sonego (ITA): No. 58 ========> No. 48 (Sonego, whose career high is No. 21, is much better than the No. 48 player in the world but gets hurt by his inconsistency. He makes a nice leap, though, with his fourth career title last week in Winston-Salem. Sonego came out SWINGING from the heels; Alex Michelsen never knew what hit him). (1st-round US Open opponent: [14] Tommy Paul)

Alex Michelsen (USA): No. 52 ========> No. 49 (Despite the loss in the finals still a great week for the 20-year-old – except for that incident in the final for which he should have been defaulted. Except for that. But it’s a first trip to the top 50). (1st-round US Open opponent: [Q] Eliot Spizzirri)

Rinky Hijikata (AUS): No. 65 ========> No. 62 (This 23-year-old Aussie, a product of the US college system, has slowly but surely been sneaking up the rankings. A quarterfinal in Winston-Salem puts him at another career high). (1st-round US Open opponent: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina)

Juncheng Shang (CHN): No. 77 ========> No. 72 (Same for this 19-year-old, who went the “junior phenom signed by the big agency route. He made the second round in Winston-Salem, and moves to another career high. It took him awhile to break that top-100 barrier, but he keeps going up). (1st-round US Open opponent: [27] Alexander Bublik)

David Goffin (BEL): No. 90 ========> No. 78 (Goffin is in the same spot as many of his 30-something contemporarie, having to work hard to stay in the top 100. But he makes a nice move by making the Winston-Salem semifinals). (1st-round US Open opponent: [22] Alejandro Tabilo)

***Goffin after losing in the first round of US Open qualifying a year ago to Denis Novak. This year, he’s straight in).***

Christopher Eubanks (USA): No. 120 ========> No. 106 (Eubanks made some pretty nifty escapes in Winston-Salem, until it caught up to him in the quarterfinals. Still, it’s a step back after he soared up to No. 29 after a great 2023 grass-court season, only to fall back down to earth a year later). (1st-round US Open opponent: Arthur Rinderknech)

Learner Tien (USA): No. 230 ========> No. 191 (The 18-year-old probably could have gone the Kalamazoo route and tried to win the 18s nationals for the third straight year – with the prize being a US Open main draw wild card. Instead, he went on a streak at the Challenger level and earned the USTA’s wild-card challenge pass on his own. He continued that by qualifying in Winston-Salem and making the quarterfinals. Tien was ranked No. 700 a year ago, and began the 2024 season at No. 453). (1st-round US Open opponent: [24] Arthur Fils)

***Tien at the Roland Garros junior boys’ event in 2023***

Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP): No. 299 ========> No. 213 (Carreño Busta, a former No. 10, is coming back from injury and seems to be getting a bit of a head of steam. He makes the semifinals in Winston-Salem and makes a big jump, after jumping 214 spots last week). (1st-round US Open opponent: Arthur Cazaux)

Karue Sell (BRA): No. 369 ========> No. 329 (Sell, 30, is a former UCLA Bruin. He stopped competing from Oct. 2019 through to Sept. 2023 and was even a hitting partner for prominent WTA players for Naomi Osaka during that period. But he’s in “no regrets down the road” mode. And has come back to give it a shot. He has put up results just about every week he’s played this year, at various levels. And after winning the ITF in Londrina, Brazil, he’s up to a career. high. Some 11 months ago when he returned, he reappeared on the computer at No. 1504).

Yibing Wu (CHN): No. 582 ========> No. 416 (Wu is returning from being out with injury. And he wins the Jinan ITF. He has another wild card into a similar event in China this week after playing just one tournament in 2024 – the clay-court ATP in Houston. Wu, 24, had a career high of No. 54 in May, 2023; he started at 1,869 in March 2022 and needed just 14 months to do that. He was out from March 2019 through to Jan. 2022 because of injuries, after winning both the singles and doubles junior titles at the US Open in 2017 and becoming the No. 1 junior in the world. He’s had a star-crossed career, to say the least. Wu still has Wayne Ferreira listed as one of his coaches, but Ferreira is currently working with Jack Draper. A guy’s gotta make a living when his player is out).

***Wu at the US Open last year. He’s a world away from that now).***

Sebastian Baez (ARG): No. 21 ========> No. 23 (Few of the top 25 played the Winston-Salem event. But Baez did, perhaps in part because he the defending champion from 2023. But he lost in the first round. And that was that). (1st-round US Open opponent: Luciano Darderi)

Jiri Lehecka (CZE): No. 32 ========> No. 38 (Lehecka, who has missed a lot of time this season because of back woes, got into the seeds – the last in, at No. 32 – at the US Open just before this ranking drop, which comes from dropping the points from last year’s Winston-Salem final. Lehecka’s career high of No. 23 came in January, just before the Australian Open when he won the ATP Tour event in Adelaide by beating Jarry, Korda then Jack Draper in the final). (1st-round US Open opponent: Marton Fucsovics)

Borna Coric (CRO): No. 87 ========> No. 98 (Coric has to be the most low-profile former No. 12 around. And he’s only 27. He seems to disappear for periods with injury. And then comes back sort of unnoticed. He loses in the second round of Winston-Salem, and drops points from making the semis a year ago). (1st-round US Open opponent: Adrian Mannarino)

Richard Gasquet (FRA): No. 126 ========> No. 136 (See Goffin, above, for the challenges of this generation. He played the US Open qualifying and lost to Vilius Gaubas of Lithuania in the first round – who is half his age. And while he still seems to love to compete, it’s hard to know how much he’ll want to do that at the Challenger level).