Monday, September 29, 2014

New USA Career-High Rankings, September 29, 2014

Each week I will bring you a list of USAmerican players who have reached a new career-high ranking. This list is not exhaustive but covers at least all players in the Top 1000.


New WTA career-high rankings, September 29, 2014

Player name
New CHR
Last wk
*= previous   CHR
+  from last week
Pvs CHR
If prior to last wk
Date achieved
If prior to last wk
Nicole Gibbs
89
92*
+3

Madison Brengle
98
110*
+12

Louisa Chirico
194
197*
+3

Jennifer Brady
326
354*
+28


Danielle Lao
357
361*
+4


Caitlin Whoriskey
388
410*
+22


Tornado Alicia Black
407
409*
+2


CiCi Bellis
425
426*
+1


Katerina Stewart
434
435*
+1


Michaela Gordon
759
761*
+2


Alexandria Stiteler
830
848
+18
848
8/25/2014
Emma Higuchi
931
959
+28
953
8/4/2014
Maria Smith
977
1002*
+25


Terri Fleming
1028
1029*
+1




















This week isn't as big as last week's 24-player bonanza, but it's still a healthy representation of relative US women's tennis health.

The breakout star of this week was by any measure Madison Brengle.  By winning the Las Vegas $50K ITF tournament without dropping a set, Brengle broke into the top 100 for the first time in her 10-year career, Brengle showed what true perseverance can accomplish.  This is a woman, of course, who famously failed to qualify for a major in 25 attempts.  She was then given a wild card to the US Open this year and got a first-round win.  Maintaining her Top 100 ranking through the end of the year is no gimme - she has a number of ITF points to defend in the coming weeks and she's signed up to play European indoor WTA qualies.  One or two good results there and it could be Top 100 for several months for the Delawarean.

I discussed Brady and Whoriskey a bit last week but as long as they keep doing good work, I'll keep writing about them.  Whoriskey got a big win over Chirico in the first round of Las Vegas, only to lose to former Top 30 player Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4 in the third (she was up 4*-3 if I remember correctly).  Still, she's showing she can compete at a high level week after week, which is all you can ask.  Brady got to the LV quarters after taking out Melanie Oudin in two tiebreaks, and lost 7-5 in the third to Tatishvili (after serving for the match at 5*-4, again if I remember correctly).  Hopefully both young women find motivation from those close calls.

Lastly, a shout out to Emma Higuchi. The 16-year-old won a round of qualies in Las Vegas and took the first set off Alexa Glatch in her return-from-injury tournament. (Glatch would go on to lose her first round match in three sets to Nicole Vaidisova, making her own comeback. SO MANY COMEBACKS!

New ATP career-high rankings, September 29, 2014

Player name
New CHR
Last wk
*= pvs CHR
+  from last wk
Pvs CHR
If prior to last wk
Date achieved
If prior to last wk
Steve Johnson
46
47
+1

9/8/2014
Jared Donaldson
299
342
+43
303
8/25/2014
Daniel Nguyen
362
382*
+20


Connor Smith
378
379*
+1
Dennis Nevolo
379
381*
+2


Dennis Novikov
436
481
+45
450
7/14/2014
Peter Kobelt
605
689*
+84

Ryan Shane
1034
1140
+6
1093
7/14/2014
Justin Shane
1109
1110*
+1


Tommy Paul
1144
1204
+60
1195
7/21/2014
Michael Grant
1146
1150*
+4

Collin Johns
1157
1161*
+4


Erik Elliott
1334
1340
+6
1338
9/8/2014
Cameron Silverman
1342
1344*
+2


Clay Thompson
1660
n/a
n/a
1774
9/23/2013



















Muuuuuuch better this week from the men.  Johnson didn't do anything to get his new career high except root for Joao Sousa to lose early in Kuala Lumpur, which is what happened.  Donaldson, however, had to do considerably more to break into the Top 300 for the first time - namely, reach his first challenger semifinal in Napa.  He came pretty close to getting to the final, only to come up just short against Tim Smyczek.  But the new pro showed plenty of game and pretty much guaranteed nobody will want to see him in any upcoming draw.

Nguyen is a name we've seen a lot over the course of these updates.  His appearance this week comes on the heels of qualifying for Napa and taking out Frank Dancevic in the first round.  He was then upset by top collegiate Julian Lenz (who lost to JD in the quarter).  With only 16 of his 123 points to defend through next May, the former Trojan could very well put himself in a position to play major qualies next year.

Two other names to highligh this week: Dennis Novikov and Peter Kobelt. Novikov took advantage of a wildcard and a good draw (he beat fellow wildcard Matt Seeberger) to reach the second round of Napa, where he lost in three sets to eventual semifinalist Alex Bolt.  The former Bruin has only *4* points to defend through May.  Kobelt, meanwhile, continues his tour of foreign futures events and picked up 15 big points by making the Sweden F6 final a couple of weeks ago. He's got nothing to defend until June and more Futures planned, so don't be surprised if he shows up a few more times before the year is out.

What was the best USA result for the week of September 22?

We're trying a new weekly "On the Rise (a tennis blog)" feature this week - a poll asking what the best result for USA tennis players was for the past week. This week we were blessed with some terrific results, so there's LOTS to choose from! If you have another result, let us know in comments!

POLL: What was the best USA result for the week of September 22?

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

New USA Career-High Rankings, September 22, 2014

Each week I will bring you a list of USAmerican players who have reached a new career-high ranking. This list is not exhaustive but covers at least all players in the Top 1000.

New ATP career-high rankings, September 22, 2014

Player name
New CHR
Last wk
*= pvs CHR
+  from last wk
Pvs CHR
If prior to last wk
Date achieved
If prior to last wk
Connor Smith
379
381*
+2


Dennis Nevolo
381
430
+49
409
8/18/2014
Daniel Nguyen
382
384*
+2


Kyle McMorrow
671
681*
+10
Peter Kobelt
689
693
+4
692
9/8/2014
Deiton Baughman
965
994
+29
974
7/14/2014
Justin Shane
1110
1112*
+2

Michael Grant
1150
1215*
+65

8/25/2014
Collin Johns
1161
1172
+11
1171
9/8/2014
Reilly Opelka
1423
1868
+445
1674
1/27/2014














The group this week is a bit larger than last week's On the Rise (a tennis blog) record-low 7 new career-highs, but still not great. The two most notable risers are Dennis Nevolo, who makes his Top 400 debut this week after winning his first ITF title a week prior in Claremont, CA, and Reilly Opelka, who tripled his total ATP points from 1 to 3 by reaching the quarterfinals of said ITF tournament.

Smith, Nevolo, and Nguyen - three former college guys - are not alone in the 300-400 range. In total there are 11 Americans with that ranking, which is basically the cutoff between the Challenger Circuit and the Futures.  Anyone in that ranking range is pretty certain to receive a top-4 seed at a Futures event, but unless they can get to the final of the event they won't move up noticeably. Challengers are potentially much more lucrative but there's a good chance you won't make the cut, and you'll like have to win three qualifying matches just to win any money or get any points.

Interestingly, this week the qualies at the tour level (Kuala Lumupr and Shenzhen) were weaker than any of the six challengers around the world.  However, it's a far distance to fly for one tournament: the following week there are two 500s, in Beijing & Tokyo, both of which with qualies cut-offs well higher than 200, and the week after that is the Masters 1000 in Shanghai. Notably there are ZERO East Asian challengers either week - so if you lose early in Kuala Lumpur, you have no reason to stick around other than to check out Malaysia, which frankly guys in the 300-400 area simply don't have the luxury of doing when there are points to be gotten elsewhere.

New WTA career-high rankings, September 22, 2014

Player name
New CHR
Last wk
*= previous   CHR
+  from last week
Pvs CHR
If prior to last wk
Date achieved
If prior to last wk
Nicole Gibbs
92
101*
+9

9/8/2014
Madison Brengle
110
112*
+2

Louisa Chirico
197
218
+21
212
8/18/2014
Asia Muhammad
243
244*
+1


Jennifer Brady
354
528
+174
524
9/8/2014
Danielle Lao
361
369*
+8


Tori Kinard
369
370*
+1


Tornado Alicia Black
409
459*
+50


Caitlin Whoriskey
410
460*
+50


Denise Muresan
416
423
+7
421
9/8/2014
Lauren Embree
425
529
+104
462
9/21/2009
CiCi Bellis
426
433
+7
431
9/8/2014
Katerina Stewart
435
442*
+7

9/8/2014
Alexa Guarachi
591
596*
+5


Josie Kuhlman
628
634
+6
632
8/25/2014
Ellie Halbauer
651
693*
+42


Julia Elbaba
692
695*
+3


Michaela Gordon
761
939
+178
929
8/25/2014
Marie Norris
893
924
+31
923
9/8/2014
Maria Smith
1002
1009
+7
1007
8/18/2014
Kate Turvy
1009
1016
+7
1014
7/28/2014
Daniella Roldan
1024
1026
+2
1025
8/25/204
Terri Fleming
1029
n/a
n/a


Sofia Kenin
1058
1266
+208
1240
1/27/204




























The difference between US women and US men is particularly sharp this week. There are nearly as many new career highs in the 350-450 range for women (9) as there are for ALL men (10).

Gibbs, of course, deserves her top billing.  She is a clever, determined player who is thrilled to be in the top 100 but most certainly wants more.  She got here via her first WTA quarterfinal, in Seoul, which she unfortunately lost in straight sets to eventual champ Pliskova.  The next day, she was in Wuhan, where she won her first-round qualies match and then later the same day lost her second round qualies match to Karin Knapp. She will likely move up again next week.

The other player who surpassed a significant round number was Chirico.  The 18-year-old is now inside the Top 200 after her semifinal showing at the $75K ITF event in Albuquerque. She is well positioned to rise further over the coming months, with only 18 points to defend the rest of this year (although there's not much left of the year!) and most of her points coming after next May.

Some collegians to mention: Jennifer Brady (UCLA) vaulted hugely following her win at the $25K event in Redding; Embree, the other finalist, reached a career high set five years ago before she started her legendary college career at Florida.  A hip injury sidelined her for the first half of 2014 so if she can stay healthy, further rise is highly likely.  And Whoriskey (Tennessee) followed up her great US Open showing with a QF result in Albuquerque - she only has 9 points to defend through May.

Finally, a few young guns: Black (16) qualified for and won a round in Albuquerque before going out to top seed and eventual champion Tatishvili; Gordon (15) reached the Redding quarters; and Kenin (15) more than doubled her points, from 3 to 8, in qualifying for Albuquerque.