WTA Rankings Report – As of Jan. 13, 2025

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MELBOURNE, Australia – Madison Keys starts off the season with an impressive run to the Adelaide title.

And she’s back in the top 15, a player none of the top 10 wants to run into early in the second week.

The funniest part of the early season are the “Road to Riyadh” rankings, which are for 2025 only and culminate in the top eight making the year-end finals.

If that qualification deadline were today, Polina Kudermetova and McCartney Kessler would make it to Riyadh. As the year goes on, that rankings list normalizes.

The great results posted by Canadians on the ITF circuit take an extra week to appear in the official rankings. So we’ll see those next week.

ATP Rankings Report – As of Jan. 13, 2025

For the complete, updated WTA rankings list, click here.

Jessica Pegula (USA): No. 7 ========> No. 6 (Pegula squeaks past Elena Rybakina and into the No. 6 spot with her final in Adelaide).

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Madison Keys (CAN): No. 20 ========> No. 14 (Watch out, here she comes. Newlywed Keys wins Adelaide and moves back into the top 15, with countrywoman Ann Li in the first round in Melbourne on Tuesday. That’s likely to have a good outcome for her).

Yulia Putintseva (KAZ): No. 29 ========> No. 23 (At 30, Putintseva hits another career high with a semifinal effort in Adelaide. She has a tough one in former Russian Elina Avanesyan (Putintseva chose Kazakhstan; Avanesyan chose Armenia).

McCartney Kessler (USA): No. 67 ========> No. 47 (At 25 and out of college, Kessler has already won two WTA Tour events. And other than those two (the other is Cleveland last summer), she has barely won a WTA level match. But in Hobart last week, she defeated higher-ranked opponents in the last three rounds: Dayana Yastremska, Avanesyan and Elise Mertns in the final. She’s into the top 50 for the first time, and gets wild card Zhang Shuai in the first round).

Jelena Ostapenko (LAT): No. 15 ========> No. 22 (Ostapenko, one of the early “retirees” from the 2024 season, drops out of the top 20 after failing to defend her Adelaide title from last year. She also bowed out in the first round in Melbourne to the returning Belinda Bencic, and will drop third-round points here).

Victoria Azarenka (BLR): No. 20 ========> No. 24 (Like Ostapenko and Caroline Garcia, Azarenka also ended her 2024 season in Guadalajara. She’s back, but is out of the top 20 after losing her points from a semifinal in Adelaide last year. Worse, the two-time Australian Open champion is out in the first round after a rather ignominious los to Lucia Bronzetti in the first round on Monday. She’ll drop points from a fourth-round effort a year ago which might drop her another five spots).

Caroline Garcia (FRA): No. 58 ========> No. 67 (Garcia ended her 2024 season in mid-September and certainly gave at least a passing thought to retirement. But she’s back, even though she didn’t play a tuneup and drops points from three wins at United Cup and another win in Adelaide. Unfortunately for her she drew Naomi Osaka in the first round of the Australian Open for the second year in a row. She beat her last year; this year, she’s out after a three-set battle Monday night).

Bernarda Pera (USA): No. 70 ========> No. 78 (Pera qualified and won a round at the 500 in Adelaide a year ago, but lost in the first round of the 250-level tournament in Hobart last week, and so she drops. Pera was ousted on the “first Sunday” – which has to be brutal for players who travel all the way down here, only to be out before it feels like the tournament has even begun).

Tayor Townsend (USA): No. 71 ========> No. 85 (Townsend drops points from Adelaide last year, as she didn’t play anything in the lead up to the Australian Open. She has a good draw against Renata Zarazua of Mexico in the first round on Tuesday; even though Zarazua is ranked higher, she’s not the same calibre of player. Townsend also is seeded No. 1 in the doubles draw with Katerina Siniakova).

Laura Siegemund (GER): No. 79 ========> No. 97 (Siegemund made the quarters in Adelaide a year ago but lost in the qualifying this year, and so her ranking takes a hit. She scraped past Hailey Baptiste in the first round in Melbourne Monday, and so has moved on towards making up those points).