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MONTREAL – Well, the impossible happened.
And 18-year-old Victoria Mboko of Burlington, Ont. is tennis’s latest phenom, after she went from the wild card to the title at the Omnium Banque Nationale.
Mboko shoots up from No. 85 to … No. 24. And will arrive at her first career US Open as a seeded player. And the Canadian No. 1.
How bow dah?
And runner-up Naomi Osaka, who had a … rough night on Thursday, is also back into the top 25 just a week after finally getting back into the top 50.
The rankings for the WTA (unlike the ATP) are post-dated for next Monday, when the Cincinnati tournament will be in full swing and on which day there wouldn’t normally be a rankings update.
So you can assume from that that any results on the ITF circuit this week won’t be posted until after Cincinnati, in 10 days’ time.
For the complete, updated WTA Tour rankings for … Aug. 11
(and there are a LOT of moves), click here.
Madison Keys (USA): No 8 ==========> No. 6 (Keys was beaten by Clara Tauson in the Montreal quarterfinals, after pulling off three-set wins over a tough Caty McNally and the talented Karolina Muchova).
Elena Rybakina (KAZ): No 12 ==========> No. 10 (Rybakina felt like a good bet to take the Montreal title. But she – her forehand, mostly – just went away in the closing stages of her semifinal match against Victoria Mboko. Still, she’s back in the top 10 for the first time since April).
Clara Tauson (DEN): No 19 ==========> No. 15 (The hard-hitting Tauson had a great tournament in Montreal, reaching the semifinals and almost pushing it to a third set against a wavering Naomi Osaka before falling in the tiebreak. She’s at a career high).
Victoria Mboko (CAN): No. 85 ==========> No. 24 (What more to say about the Canadian wild card, who won her big home-country event and will head to her first US Open as a seeded player – and the No. 1 woman player in Canada. It was a Cinderella story, and she’s just getting started).
Naomi Osaka (JPN): No. 49 ==========> No. 25 (Osaka looked almost like her best self for much of the 12 days in Montreal. Until she didn’t. She melted down in the final, and then withdrew from Cincinnati. The good news is that she’s back in the top 25 for the first time since before the 2022 Australian Open).
Veronika Kudermetova (RUS): No. 42 ==========> No. 36 (Kudermetova looked good until the third round, when she had Coco Gauff on the ropes and couldn’t put her away. Still, she moves back into the top 40)
Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (ESP): No. 51 ==========> No. 42 (The 22-year-old low-key made it to the quarterfinals with quite a nice draw, before falling to Mboko. She’s into the top 50 for the first time. After defeating 45-year-old Venus Williams in the first round in Cincinnati, she’s set to face Leylah Fernandez).
Yuliia Starodubtseva (UKR): No. 73 ==========> No. 63 (The Ukrainian upset No. 21 Magdalena Frech in the second round in Montreal before losing quickly to Tauson. She, too, is at a career best).
Maria Sakkari (GRE): No. 72 ==========> No. 65 (There are signs of life from Sakkari, who had a good run in D.C. and squeezed into the main draw in Montreal, where she escaped Can-American Carson Branstine in the first round before losing a close one to two-time defending champion Jessica Pegula).
Katerina Siniakova (CZE): No. 89 ==========> No. 73 (Siniakova didn’t take her chances in the Montreal qualifying. Rather, she played the Polish Open, a WTA 125 tournament, and won it).
Viktorija Golubic (SUI): No. 90 ==========> No. 75 (Golubic, 32, made the WTA 125 final in Warsaw losing to Katerina Siniakova).
Aoi Ito (JPN): No. 110 ==========> No. 94 (Ito grabbed some attention last week with her funky game and lovely personality. And as a qualifier, she made even more noise by dispatching No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini in a third-set tiebreak before falling in a close one to Bouzas Maneiro. She’s into the top 100 for the first time after being on the cusp most of this season).
Caty McNally (USA): No. 116 ==========> No. 104 (McNally’s ranking is finally getting close to where it should be, after a long injury layoff. She had two good wins in Montreal and acquitted herself beautifully in a loss to Keys. She has a wild card into her hometown event in Cincinnati, and pretty much has the USTA wild card for the US Open sewn up although she’d likely get a wild card in any event. It’s great to have her all-court game back at the top level).
Bianca Andreescu (CAN): No. 187 ==========> No. 174 (Andreescu’s cursed career takes another hit as she goes over on her ankle at the tail end of her opening match in Montreal against Barbora Krejcikova, and manages to take two more points to post the win. But she withdrew from her second round against Mirra Andreeva. And, entered with her protected ranking in Cincinnati, she withdrew from that as well).
Kaitlin Quevedo (ESP): No. 235 ==========> No. 179 (Quevedo switched her nationality from American to Spanish a little while back. And the 19-year-old has done well in tournaments around Spain since then. She’s at a career high ater winning a $100K ITF in the Grand Canary Islands last week, beaing Arantxa Rus in the final).
Anastasija Sevastova (LAT): No. 386 ==========> No. 267 (Sevastova is playing on a protected ranking. And she posted excellent wins in Montreal over No. 25 seed Magda Linette and two-time defending champ Pegula. But then, Osaka rolled over her in the fourth round. Still, she put a dent in that actual ranking).
Lin Zhu (CHN): No. 493 ==========> No. 304 (Another player on a protected ranking after a long injury absence, Zhu looked good in Montreal, notably in coming back from a 1-6 first set to take out No. 12 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova).
Clara Tauson (DEN) (No. 15)
Victoria Mboko (CAN) (No. 24)
Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (ESP) (No. 42)
Suzan Lamens (NED) (No. 58)
Yulia Starodubsteva (UKR) (No. 63)
Aoi Ito (JPN) (No. 94)
Lanlana Taraudee (No. 165)
Janice Tjen (INA) (No. 170)
Kaitlyn Quevedo (No. 179)
Guo Hanyu (CHN) (No. 208)
Paula Badosa (ESP): No. 10 ==========> No. 12 (Badosa missed Montreal. And she’s missing Cincinnati as well. She’s due back in the “mixed singles” competition at the US Open but not with Stefanos Tsitsipas, as originally scheduled. She’s due to play with Jack Draper, who was to play with Zheng Qinwen before she had elbow surgery. Assuming she’s a go. The drop comes as she couldn’t defend her WTA 500 title in D.C. from a year ago).
Diana Shnaider (RUS): No. 17 ==========> No. 20 (Shnaider, who has changed coaches again, was taken out by a jetlagged Marie Bouzkova in the second round in Montreal. In Cincinnati, she was due to play Mboko, but in the end will play the winner of two lucky losers).
Leylah Fernandez (CAN): No. 24 ==========> No. 26 (Fernandez came from her big title in D.C. and stirred up quite a fuss in Montreal about a schedule that was more a function of the overlap of the events this summer, blaming the tournament. that was after she went out in a blaze of drama in the first round to Maya Joint – whom she’d beaten in D.C. Hopefully Cincinnati will be better to her. And now, with Mboko’s rise, she’s no longer in the top spot in the Canadian women’s tennis ecosphere).
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT): No. 26 ==========> No. 30 (Osaka, who made the third round last year in the smaller draw, went out in the third round in Montreal to Osaka).
Ashlyn Krueger (USA): No. 29 ==========> No. 35 (The American, who had just jumped into the top 30, is out after a surprising opening loss to Bouzas Maneiro in Montreal).
Emma Raducanu (GBR): No. 33 ==========> No. 39 (Raducanu said this week her goal is to be seeded by the Australian Open next January. Which doesn’t seem like much of an ambitious goal, to be honest. She was almost there for the US Open, but falls back after a third-round loss to Amanda Anisimova in Montreal)
Katie Boulter (GBR): No. 43 ==========> No. 50 (Wins have been hard to come by for Boulter, who was shocked in the opening round in Montreal by Renata Zarazua. She stays in the top 50 – barely, by two points)
Marie Bouzkova (CZE): No. 39 ==========> No. 52 (Bouzkova won her second career title in Prague on Saturday, flew to Montreal, and had to battle exhaustion and jet lag but hit the wall against Mboko, after winning the first set in their third-round match. A year ago, she … So she drops out of the top 50, after all that. She reached the final at the Citi Open a year ago, losing to Badosa. So in the confusion with the different dates and draws this year, that’s probably why).
Peyton Stearns (USA): No. 37 ==========> No. 53 (Stearns also drops out of the top 50 after losing in the second round of Montreal to Raducanu. She also lost early in D.C., freezing up against the returning 45-year-old Venus Williams in her opener. A year ago in Toronto she made the quarterfinals –she got retirements from both Keys and Azarenka – in the smaller draw).
Caroline Dolehide (USA): No. 55 ==========> No. 76 (Dolehide, who made the D.C. semifinals last year in a great run, got a tough opener against Anna Blinkova in Montreal and couldn’t get through. So a lot of points drop off).
Anna Bondar (HUN): No. 60 ==========> No. 93 (Bondar lost in the second round of a WTA 125 in Warsaw last week, and so didn’t defend her points from winning a W75 ITF in Germany a year ago. As well, she had a title at a WTA 125 in Hamburg for this current week, that also drops off).
Taylor Townsend (USA): No. 75 ==========> No. 125 (Tough week for Taylor Townsend, who only needed to win one qualifying match in Montreal to get into the main draw and defend her points from a year ago. But she was stuck in Washington winning the doubles title. That’s a good thing, as she became the No. 1 doubles player in the world in the process. But it’s tough for her singles ranking. Townsend qualified and made the quarterfinals in Toronto last year, so it was a tough call to make. She will try to do some things in Cincinnati on that end, where she qualified and made the third round of the smaller draw a year ago. Townsend also reached the doubles final in Montreal, cementing that top spot).
Victoria Azarenka (BLR): No. 95 ==========> No. 131 (Azarenka is out of the top 100 for the first time since she went off on maternity leave more than seven years ago. And she’s not playing either Montreal or Cincinnati. She’d likely have gotten into the qualifying. But she hasn’t played since losing in the first round at Wimbledon).
Marina Stakusic (CAN): No. 144 ==========> No. 159 (Stakusic has been dealing with a wrist issue. And she hadn’t played since losing in the second round of qualifying at Roland Garros. She came back for Montreal and lost in the first round to Jaqueline Cristian in three sets. But she withdrew from the subsequent ITFs and didn’t play the Cincinnati qualifying, either).
Wang Yafan (CHN): No. 145 ==========> No. 192 (Wang showed some things in Montreal, as she played her first matches since the Australian Open in January. Her ranking stood at No. 64 at that point. She won her qualifying match in Montreal against an irate Rebeka Masarova, but lost in three sets to Starodubtseva in the first round. The former top 50 player has been so scarce, her bio photo on her WTA web page is still that … faux denim kit from Nike. From 2019).
In her farewell week, Genie Bouchard gets back on the WTA rankings chart for the first time since falling off on the week of May 12.
Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski drops to No. 13, as she and Erin Routliffe – who won in Canada last year – were shocked in the first round in Montreal by the solid team of Dolehide and Kenin. It’s her first week out of the top 10 in nearly two years.
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Tks.
This is not the first time Andreesecu has hurt her ankle playing. Do you have any idea why she doesn’t wear an ankle brace as a precaution? It might have helped her to avoid her latest injury. Tks.
I have no insight into why she does or doesn’t do anything.
But there are varying opinions about whether those things actually prevent anything, or give a false sense of security and dependance.
I can see the logic of using them if you already have an injury and are trying to protect it.