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.

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