WTA Rankings Report – As of Sept. 16, 2024

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It was one of THOSE weeks, where few top players got on the court after the US Open (and even of those who had signed up, many were no-shows or early exiters).

So what did that mean? Opportunity knocks.

And players took full advantage of it. None more so than qualifier Sonay Kartal, who won her first career WTA Tour title with a straight-sets win over Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia in the Monastir final Sunday.

All four finalists this week were seeking their first career titles at the WTA level.

Despite those absences, there was still movement in the top 10. And Danielle Collins is back in it.

(All photos courtesy of the Guadalajara Open, except where indicated).

ATP Rankings Report – As of Sept. 16, 2024

(For the complete, updated WTA Rankings for Sept. 16, click here).

Maria Sakkari (GRE): No. 10 ===========> No. 9 (Sakkari hasn’t done much for … ages. And yet, despite dropping points from a year ago, she still moves up a spot in the rankings mostly because Barbora Krejcikova drops her points from winning San Diego a year ago. Sakkari, who retired in her first-round match at the US Open, is a modest 21-14 on the season and still has earned nearly $2 million US. But it’s coming; the points she dropped this week are from that WTA 500 in San Diego; she won Guadalajara last year when it was a WTA 1000, and those 900 will come off in a week, which would drop her to about No. 18, with another 400 to defend on the Asian swing).

Danielle Collins (USA): No. 11 ===========> No. 10 (Collins, who sandwiched her US Open with opening-match losses at WTA 500s in Monterrey and Guadalajara, still moves back into the top 10 despite dropping her San Diego semifinal points from last year).

Magdalena Frech (POL): No. 43 ===========> No. 32 (Frech moves to a new career high with a title in Guadalajara Sunday. It’s the first of her career – all four finalists this week were going for their first career titles. As she turns 27 in December, she’s playing her best tennis).

Camila Osorio (COL): No. 80 ===========> No. 61 (Osorio, whose career high of No. 33 came in April 2022 but who has had some injuries since, puts a nice dent in her ranking with a semifinal effort in Guadalajara. Except for the Olympics, Osorio hadn’t won back-to-back matches at the WTA level since she won her home country WTA 250 in Bogóta in April. And that was the only other time in 2024).

Kamilla Rakhimova (RUS): No. 89 ===========> No. 73 (Rakhimova moved up when she won the WTA 125 in Guadalajara the previous week against a very solid field. And moved up more with her quarterfinal effort at the WTA 500 event last week).

Renata Zarazua (MEX): No. 85 ===========> No. 78 (The 26-year-old from Mexico is bumping up in the rankings, as a second-round effort in Guadalajara moves her up to another career high, first time in the top 80).

Martina Trevisan (ITA): No. 99 ===========> No. 87 (Trevisan, now 30 and a former No. 18, has been very quiet this year. But she secures a spot in the Australian Open main draw, most likely, with a quarterfinal effort in Guadalajara).

Olivia Gadecki (AUS): No. 152 ===========> No. 88 (Gadecki breaks into the top 100 for the first time with a run from the qualifying to the final at the WTA 500 in Guadalajara. A great example of maximizing an opportunity).

Sonay Kartal (GBR): No. 151 ===========> No. 96 (Kartal did very well to qualify at Wimbledon this year. But her qualifying days might be behind her as she leaps into the top 100 for the first time, Kartal, 22, went from the qualifying to the title at the WTA 250 in Monastir. Needless to say, it’s her first career title. She was ranked No. 298 before that Wimbledon qualifying effort, which she ran to the third round with wins over top-50 players Sorana Cirstea and Clara Burel).

Rebecca Sramkova (SVK): No. 136 ===========> No. 102 (Sramkova, 27, made the final in Monastir but lost to the qualifier Kartal. She, too, has an interesting backstory, with little sight in her left eye. It’s hard to understate how tough tennis is to play without depth perception. And the injuries have really hampered her. So she lost, but she also won. Now she’s entered in the WTA 250 in Hua Hin, Thailand this week. So it will be good work to try to get to Thailand from Tunisia in time for her first-round match, scheduled against Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew. Even if she leaves Monday morning, she wouldn’t get to Bangkok until Tuesday afternoon – with a three-hour drive to Hua Hin after that).

Marina Stakusic (CAN): No. 155 ===========> No. 128 (Another career high for Stakusic, who got a wild card into Guadalajara courtesy of Octagon – likely the one left begging by Bianca Andreescu – and took it to the quarterfinals. There, she tightened up a little with the possibilities, and went out. But an encouraging week).

Jil Teichmann (SUI): No. 182 ===========> No. 145 (The former No. 21 fell right off the map in the last year or so. But took a step forward in a comeback by winning the WTA 125 in Ljubljana this past week).

Ena Shibahara (JPN): No. 169 ===========> No. 145 (The Japanese-American doubles specialists’s singles quest continues, as she breaks into the top 150 for the first time after qualifying and winning a round in Guadalajara. Just a reminder that Shibahara began the 2024 season ranked No. 581).

Barbora Krejcikova (CZE): No. 9 ===========> No. 11 (Krejcikova, who will still qualify for the WTA Finals unless she drops out of the top 20, because of her title at Wimbledon and new rules this year, drops her point from winning the 500 in San Diego last year and falls out of the top 10. She has about 300 points to defend, nearly all of them from a final in Zhengzhou last October. So she’s good).

Ashlyn Krueger (USA): No. 51 ===========> No. 69 (Krueger, who had been at a career high after the US Open, drops her points from winning the WTA 250 in Osaka a year ago and falls back down. Krueger caught that stomach flu that went around in Guadalajara – and forced Marie Bouzkova to withdraw from her quarterfinal match – and was … ill the previous night and through the day before she was to play her second-round match. She eventually lost to Frech in three sets.

Sofia Kenin (USA): No. 54 ===========> No. 90 (It’s really hard to gauge the winds of Kenin’s career at the moment, even though she’s still only 25. She drop points from a good run in San Diego a year ago, and didn’t play this week to try to defend them).

Sara Errani (ITA): No. 76 ===========> No. 91 (Can’t blame Errani for not playing this week, after winning the mixed doubles at the US Open with Andrea Vavassori. But her points from making the final of the WTA 125 in Bucharest a year ago fly off).

Marina Bassols Ribera (ESP): No. 113 ===========> No. 156 (That top-100 threshold is SO hard for so many players. Bassols got SO close – No. 105 – back in February. But she slides back after losing in the first round of the WTA 250 in Monastir, dropping her points from making the final of the WTA 125 in Slovenia a year ago).