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.