Monday, August 4, 2014

New USA Career-High Rankings, August 4, 2014

Each week I will endeavor to bring you a list of USAmerican players who have reached a new career-high ranking. This list is not exhaustive but will cover most players in the Top 1000. 

New ATP Career-High Rankings - August 4, 2014 (previous high & date achieved in parentheses)

Steve Johnson: 54 (63 - 6/9/2014)
Chase Buchanan: 174 (177 - 7/28/2014)
Jared Donaldson: 309 (326 - 7/28/2014)
Dennis Nevolo: 417 (420 - 7/28/2014)
Marcos Giron: 435 (445 - 5/19/2014)
Connor Smith: 489 (506 - 5/19/2014)
Sekou Bangoura: 538 (553 - 7/21/2014)
Mitchell Frank: 606 (622 - 2/13/2012)
Alexander Sarkissian: 682 (690 - 7/28/2014)
Kyle McMorrow: 698 (708 - 7/28/2014)
Peter Kobelt: 733 (742 - 7/21/2014)
Colin Altamirano: 846 (847 - 7/7/2014)
Spencer Papa: 893 (918 - 7/28/2014)
Ronnie Schneider: 1025 (1194 - 7/28/2014)

At #54, Johnson is the highest "NCHer" on the ATP since starting this series back in June.  He got there thanks to a couple of wins over big servers in DC (Karlovic, then Isner), saving match points in each. Unfortunately, he had the misfortune to run into eventual champion Milos Raonic, who wasn't losing to anyone last week, in the quarterfinals.  While it's frustrating that his is the only name in the Top 150, there were a few other substantial jumps, most notably Chase Buchanan, who has his fourth NCH in five weeks after his first round win in Vancouver (losing to eventual champion Baghdatis); Mitchell Frank, who collected his Futures points from Godfrey, IL and jumped 62 spots on top of his 166-spot jump last week; and Ronnie Schneider, whose run to the Godfrey semis from qualies was a huge result from the Tarheel.

Speaking of Futures, check out this excellent article on the penultimate round of qualies yesterday at the Edwardsville Futures event.  It's rare to see an article that in-depth about any tournament, let alone qualies of a futures. LOVE IT!

New WTA Career-High Rankings - August 4, 2014 (previous high & date achieved in parentheses)

Victoria Duval: 87 (90 - 7/14/2014)
Grace Min: 108 (109 - 7/28/2014)
Madison Brengle: 118 (128 - 7/28/2014)
Taylor Townsend: 127 (143 - 7/28/2014)
Allie Kiick: 137 (138 - 7/28/2014)
Sachia Vickery: 145 (178 - 1/27/2014)
Asia Muhammad: 292 (294 - 4/7/2014)
Katerina Stewart: 526 (528 - 7/28/2014)
Jennifer Brady: 539 (588 - 8/12/2013)
Tornado Alicia Black: 574 (718 - 7/28/2014)
Alexa Guarachi: 671 (688 - 7/28/2014)
Kelly Chen: 867 (1266 - 7/28/2014)
Alexandria Stiteler: 892 (894 - 7/28/2014)
Michaela Gordon: 932 (964 - 7/28/2014)
Marie Norris: 938 (945 - 7/28/2014)
Emma Higuchi: 953 (961 - 7/28/2014)
Nadja Gilchrist: 1028 (1030 - 7/28/2014)
Natalie Suk: 1110 (1114 - 7/28/2014)

Sachia "Fierce" Vickery (not sure if she's ever used that nickname but it works!) is the big story of the week, with her dream run through qualies to the Stanford quarterfinal was amazing to follow.  Her one-week jump of 48 spots put her in 20th place among USAmericans; the fact that she's still only at 145 gives the US the highest 20th-place American since, I believe, April 11, 2005* when Kelly McCain was ranked #140. (Serena Williams was #4 then and Venus Williams was #8.)

Vicky Duval, of course, continues to amaze. She tweets about her treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and the support she's getting. She rose due to others not defending points (she is defending nothing until the US Open and so could appear here again this summer).  Black's points were from her qualifying for DC's WTA event - her first such qualification - while Chen's came from her Ft. Worth, Texas $10K win.

Finally, all respect to Madison Brengle, who came within a few points of a HUGE jump as she twice served for the final in Vancouver vs. Jarmila Gajdosova but who is still up to an impressive 118. Although she'll be losing a bunch of points coming up from her win last year at $25K/Landisville 2013, she's now in a position to get some better tournament entries or seedings and if somehow it works out, there's an ever-so-slight possibility that she would actually get a direct entry into a major someday, which, given her issues in qualies, would be the best thing ever.

*Based on a survey of TennisForum.com's semiregular listing of Top 20 USA players plus a little legwork of my own.  If anyone finds something different, please let me know!

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