New USA Career-High Rankings, Dec. 8, 2014

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

New WTA career-high rankings, December 8, 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
Katerina Stewart	365	369*	+4
Nadja Gilchrist	583	585*	+2
Ellie Halbauer	611	616	+5	612	11/3/2014
Rianna Valdes	764	766*	+2
Alexandria Stiteler	779	784*	+5
Ingrid Neel	807	808*	+1
Kelly Chen	827	830*	+3
Nicole Frenkel	831	834*	+3
Alexandra Morozova	885	946	+61	938	11/3/2014
Emma Higuchi	898	902*	+4
Natalie Suk	905	908*	+3
Daniella Roldan	925	932	+7	931	11/24/2014
Kristina Smith	975	984*	+9
Terri Fleming	993	1001*	+8
Usue Arconada	1044	1051*	+7		11/3/2014
Caroline Dolehide	1047	1055*	+8
Jessica Ho	1072	1087*	+15
Tina Tehrani	1090	1103*	+13
Jessica Failla	1123	1134*	+11
Andie Daniell	1129	1140*	+11
Alexandra Valenstein	1163	1174*	+11
Dasha Ivanova	1163	1174*	+11
Jessica Golovin	1218	1228*	+10
Alexis Nelson	1218	1228*	+10

These women continue to annoy, as they make for looooong lists despite not participating in tournaments. With the exception of Morozova (who reached the quarters of a $10K in Bogota a couple of weeks back) it's all attrition! December is supposed to be the slowest month (and it is, match play-wise) but here we are with two dozen new career-high rankings. I mean, I'm very happy for all of them, but it would be nicer if there were wins to celebrate along with the rises.

New ATP career-high rankings, December 8, 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	334	356	+22	351	11/10/2014
Peter Kobelt	543	545*	+2
Reilly Opelka	1194	1198*	+4		11/24/2014

The shortest list ever! And only one of the players actually "earned" his rise this week. Kobelt and Opelka both advanced thanks to attrition, so all our attention should be on Connor Smith. It's a bittersweet rise for the erstwhile Ohio State Buckeye, who reached the final at the Dominican Republic F1 Futures event and went up a set and 4-2 over controversial Dutchman Antal Van Der Duim only to lose that set in a tiebreaker (7-5) and then win a lone game in the 3rd set. On the bright side, though, Smith continues to impress on clay, and has only 3 points to defend for the next 4 months, so there's plenty of room for growth as he reaches the top of the Futures game.

(I honestly don't know why the discrepancy between the two sexes at this stage in the calendar, but it's been a few weeks now, and I'll admit to being stumped.  It's really just noise, but why wouldn't there be equal noise on both sides?.  If anyone has a clear-cut explanation of this phenomenon, I'd love to hear it!)