WTA Rankings Report – As of Oct. 21, 2024

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Two late-season WTA tournaments, both with a ton of late withdrawals, created a lot of opportunities for players to move up late in the season.

In Ningbo, that meant Daria Kasatkina moved back into the top 10, and 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva moved up to a new career best of No. 17.

In Osaka, it means that 25-year-old Suzan Lamens – a journeywoman in the most complementary sense of the word – leaps into the top 100 for the first time in her career as she wins her first-ever WTA title as a qualifier.

But, most notably, Monday brings the drop of perennial No. 1 Iga Swiatek to No. 2, as her absence from the Asian swing means that Aryna Sabalenka squeezes past her and into the top spot by 41 points.

ATP Rankings Report – As of Oct. 21, 2024

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

Aryna Sabalenka (BLR): No. 2 ===========> No. 1 (Partly because she put up results, and mostly because Iga Swiatek took a swing and a miss on the Asian swing, the Belarussian US Open champion is back in the top spot in the rankings for the first time since exactly a year ago, which was her seventh week at No. 1 after the 2023 US Open).

Daria Kasatkina (RUS): No. 11 ===========> No. 9 (Once Kasatkina got to the semifinals, the best she could do was move to No. 9 whether she lost there, or went on to win the tournament. She won a long, emotional one against Mirra Andreeva in the final, and is back into the top 10).

(WTAtv.com)

Mirra Andreeva (RUS): No. 19 ===========> No. 17 (Another career high for the 17-year-old, who had planned to end her season after Wuhan but in the end, played one more. She said that if you’d told her at the start of the season that she’d end it No. 16, she’d have said you were crazy. That didn’t make Sunday’s loss less tear-inducing, although she was able to joke that she didn’t want to cry, because she knew that it would make for bad photographs ).

Karolina Muchova (CZE): No. 30 ===========> No. 25 (Muchova is on her way back, safely ensconced, for all intents and putposes, in the seeds for the Australian Open. The concern is having to retire in her semifinal in Ningbo Saturday early in the second set, as her back was acting up).

Yulia Putintseva (KAZ): No. 32 ===========> No. 29 (Putintseva gave Kasatkina everything she could handle in the Ningbo quarterfinals, going down in a third-set tiebreak with two match points she couldn’t convert. She’s back in the top 30, and just two spots off her career best).

Clara Tauson (DEN): No. 64 ===========> No. 53 (Tauson was the cover girl on the ITF’s player search page for years, even as she was hardly playing because of a back issue. She’s finally been replaced there. And the tennis is looking up as she makes the Osaka quarterfinals. This is as high as she’s been in the rankings since Aug. 2022. Tauson was the top seed in the Tokyo qualifying this weekend. But after winning the first set of her final round 6-1 against a Japanese player, she ended up losing in three – and getting in as a lucky loser).

Suzan Lamens (NED): No. 125 ===========> No. 88 (The 25-year-old Dutchwoman isn’t well known. But she’s slowly but surely been moving up. As a qualifier, she wins the absolute crapshoot in Osaka and bags her first career WTA title. She also leaps into the top 100 for the first time in her career).

Ann Li (USA): No. 120===========> No. 108 (Li is going to look hard for a main-draw spot on her own in Melbourne. Her run to the Macon $100K final not only would puts her in good stead for the USTA’s wild-card challenge, it might well get her straight into Melbourne if she can put together more wins in this late season).

Kimberly Birrell (AUS): No. 150 ===========> No. 111 (Birrell is one of the “top-100 glass ceiling players”, although she did reach exactly No. 100 – a year ago last month. At 26, she gets close again after qualifying at the WTA Osaka 250 and making it all the way to the final, losing to Lamens).

Seven years ago this week, 26-year-old Rebecca Marino went to Saguenay, having officially unretired and expecting to play. Except there were paperwork issues, and so she ended up just practicing. Fast forward, and she wins the Calgary Challenger seven years later.

Rebecca Marino (CAN): No. 136 ===========> No. 118 (Marino is the Calgary Challenger champion. Still a long way to go to get back into the top 100; she’s entered in the Tampico WTA 125 this coming week, looking for 100 ranking points (or a little more) the next weeks to hopefully get herself in).

Ena Shibahara (JPN): No. 139 ===========> No. 132 (Shibahara’s great singles experiment of 2024 continues to pay dividents, as she qualifies in Osaka. Another career singles high for the 26-year-old. She and Laura Siegemund also, as it happens, won the doubles title).

Heather Watson (GBR): No. 157 ===========> No. 134 (Every so often, 32-year-old Heather Watson will put up a result that puts a halt to a downward rankings slide, and puts her back on a better track. This time, it’s a title at an ITF in Shrewsbury and a gain of more than 20 spots).

Aoi Ito (JPN): No. 188 ===========> No. 151 (Unknown to all but perhaps the diehard Japanese fans, the 20-year-old qualified in Osaka and went all the way to the semifinals. She had already been at a career high; now, she’s at a new career high).

Carson Branstine (CAN): No. 272 ===========> No. 263 (A little bit each week for the 24-year-old Can-American, who won just one match in Bakersfield and Calgary at ITFs, but still moves up to another career high. She’s the No. 8 seed in the Saguenay ITF this week).

Cadence Brace (CAN): No. 390 ===========> No. 328 (The 19-year-old began the season ranked No. 453, and now is at a career best after making the quarters at a smaller ITF in Edmonton two weeks ago, and the semifinals last week in Calgary. She’s already on the roster at LSU for the fall, but hasn’t competed yet).

***Diyas at the Australian Open nearly a decade ago, when she was at her career-high ranking.***

Zarina Diyas (KAZ): No. 488 ===========> No. 379 (The original – and non-import – Kazakh who lived in the Czech Republic as a kid, then based herself in Guangzhou, China, the 31-year-old Diyas has had injuries woes that took her out for a couple of years. Diyas has been hanging in a long time; her career high of No. 31 came nearly a decade ago, just before the … 2015 Australian Open. That was helped by her only WTA title in Tokyo, seven years ago. Exactly three years ago, she made the final of the ITF in Macon, Georgia. She played the Australian Open that January, the first round of the Roland Garros qualifying that May – and then was out for nearly two years before returning this past May in Japan. She gets things on the right track with a win at the $40,000 ITF in Kayseri, Turkey).

Iga Swiatek (POL): No. 1 ===========> No. 2 (Swiatek knew that by missing the Asian swing she likely would sacrifice the No. 1 spot she’d held every week for the last year. And so it goes, as Sabalenka gets back up to the top. But she’s looking at the big picture).

Danielle Collins (USA): No. 9 ===========> No. 11 (Collins slips out of the top 10, not on this Asian swing, the same week she announces that things off the court might not be going as well as planned in terms of her plans to try to start a family. And so she will return in 2025, starting with the United Cup).

Elise Mertens (BEL): No. 28 ===========> No. 36 (Mertens was defending the title in Monastir that wrapped up her 2023 season. But she retired in her second-round match in Osaka and drops out of the top 35).

Katerina Siniakova (CZE): No. 41 ===========> No. 48 (Siniakova, fairly inarguably the best doubles player in the world, got to a career high of No. 27 in singles in June. It as a bit shortlived, and she drops after losing in the second round of Ningbo, after the final points from a great run a year ago fall off. She made the final of the Hong Kong Open, then followed that up with a title in Jiangxi).

Clara Burel (FRA): No. 54 ===========> No. 67 (Burel didn’t play this past week, and so her points from a semifinal in Monastir a year ago go up in smoke).

Taylor Townsend (USA): No. 51 ===========> No. 66 (Townsend doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the Asian swing. She played just Beijing – likely mostly because of the doubles with Siniakova, and lost in the first round. They’ve already qualified for the WTA finals in doubles by virtue of their Roland Garros title. And she drops her points from winning an $80K ITF in Macon, Georgia last year, closer to home).

Nuria Parrizas Diaz (ESP): No. 82 ===========> No. 97 (After a late-career surge that got her inside the top 50, the 33-year-old Spaniard dropped back down and now mostly plays at the ITF level. She lost in the first round in the U.K. last week (dropping quarterfinal points from the WTA in Monastir a year ago). And she flew all the way to Tampico, Mexico to play a WTA 125 this coming week).

Lesia Tsurenko (UKR): No. 101 ===========> No. 120 (A week ago, Tsurenko … This week. she didn’t play at all. And so she pretty much drops out of contention to get straight into Melbourne unless she can have a great couple of weeks. Tsurenko had qualified and made the quarters of last year’s 500 tournament in Zhengzhou (and retired after the first set); those are the points that dropped two weeks ago. She was No. 32 when she made the semis in Monastir; those are the points dropping on this list. She has four retirements this year, the latest in the 2nd round in Wuhan after beating Katie Boulter in the first round. She has 12 opening-round losses in 18 tournaments this year).

Rebeka Masarova (ESP): No. 116 ===========> No. 142 (The 25-year-old from Spain didn’t play last eek, and so drops her points earned in 2023 from making the Transylvania Open semis).