New USA Career-High Rankings, October 20, 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, October 20, 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
Jack Sock	47	51*	+4
Daniel Nguyen	341	344*	+3
Dennis Nevolo	345	350*	+5
Connor Smith	372	374*	+2		10/6/2014
Dennis Novikov	417	424*	+7
Stefan Kozlov	441	444	+3	443	10/6/2014
Sekou Bangoura	497	498*	+1		9/15/2014
Peter Kobelt	562	577*	+15
Alexander Sarkissian	602	616*	+6
Kyle McMorrow	655	660*	+5
Raymond Sarmiento	860	866	+6	861	8/25/2014
Spencer Papa	862	878	+16
Deiton Baughman	930	934*	+4
Ronnie Schneider	1021	1026	+4	1025	8/4/2014
Ryan Shane	1021	1026*	+5
Thai-son Kwiatkowski	1025	1029	+4	1027	8/25/2014
Justin Shane	1093	1096*	+3
Hunter Harrington	1176	1182*	+6
Nathan Pasha	1176	1182*	+6
Erik Elliott	1320	1332*	+12		10/6/2014
Cameron Silverman	1328	1340*	+12		10/6/2014
Reilly Opelka	1410	1415*	+5
Haig Schneiderman	1533	1544	+11	1541	10/6/2014
Gage Brymer	1533	1544	+11	1541	10/6/2014
Clay Thompson	1609	1621*	+12
Aron Hiltzik	1611	1623*	+12

This is the third straight week with at least 25 men on this list (26 to be specific).  As usual, most of the rises were due to a point here and there, or others dropping down, but often it's the little things that we learn to appreciate most in life.

By far the most notable member of the list is Jack Sock, who continues to turn heads and raise eyebrows and jerk knees with his increasingly steady play.  This week it was his quarterfinal run in Stockholm, including a win over Chardy and a close loss to Dimitrov, that led to his Top 50 debut. He also reached the final in doubles, which unfortunately meant he had to withdraw from Valencia qualies, where he no doubt could have done some damage.  The one time he truly could have benefited from a main draw wildcard ...

Also notable is Peter Kobelt, who reaps the rewards of his quarterfinal run in the Futures event Leiman, Germany, a week ago.  Kobelt has actually lost in the quarters for 4 weeks in a row - including this past week's heartbreaker against Marek Michalicka in Bad Salzdetfurth, German, during which he had match points in the second set, only to eat a bagel in the third.  Just one extra win in any of those tournaments would've been a huge boost (you only get 2-3 points for quarterfinals, versus 6-8 for semis). But still he rises.

Finally, a quick shout-out to Daniel Nguyen, who is on this list for the sixth consecutive week.  He's only about 26 points out of the Top 300 ... if he can qualify and get a nice draw or two during the USA fall indoor challenger swing, we *could* just see his name appear on the good ol' Live Tennis Rankings website this year.

New WTA career-high rankings, October 20, 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
Louisa Chirico	190	192*	+2		10/6/2014
Sanaz Marand	249	259	+10	253	9/15/2014
CiCi Bellis	311	423	+112	419	10/6/2014
Lauren Embree	348	425	+77	421	10/6/2014
Katerina Stewart	419	435	+16	432	10/6/2014
Nadja Gilchrist	636	642*	+6
Julia Elbaba	681	686*	+5
Michaela Gordon	751	755*	+4
Rianna Valdes	805	821*	+16
Marie Norris	805	950	+145	893	9/22/2014
Alexandria Stiteler	809	810*	+1
Ingrid Neel	832	833*	+1
Emma Higuchi	928	930*	+2		10/6/2014
Natalie Suk	937	1093	+156	1090	8/11/2014
Alexandra Morozova	1012	1222	+210	1103	11/11/2013
Jessico Ho	1123	n/a	n/a

Fewer names but far more excitement among the women this week, with three young women making huge strides.  Standing tallest is, of course, young CiCi Bellis, who still can't play full-time in pro events, but whose first pro title - the $25K in Rock Hill, SC, shows up this week.  She'll get another 50 points next week and be well inside the Top 300 - with only 7 tournaments on her ranking!

Sanaz Marand breaks into the Top 250 for the first time, thanks to her quarterfinal finish in Rock Hill. It could have been so much better - she had a big lead against eventual finalist Despina Papamichel but lost 61 57 46.  She's defending 36 points the rest of the year. She kicks off the last stretch in Macon this week against Veronica Cepede Royg.

Lauren Embree was Bellis' victim in the Rock Hill final (her second $25K final loss to an American since Labor Day).  She's only got 22 points to defend until July and so you've got to think she'll be on the list again soon, even though she defending 8 points this week and opens against Grace Min in Macon.

Last two: Marie Norris got her boost thanks to qualifying for Rock Hill and winning her first match against spiraling Julia Cohen, while Natalie Suk got in as a Lucky Loser and won a round (beating Angelina Gabueva 60 06 64) to break into the Top 1000.

Edited to add: In my haste I neglected to include Alexandra Morozova, who jumped the most spots of anyone after qualifying for, and winning around at, you guessed it: Rock Hill!