New USA Career-High Rankings, Feb. 16, 2015

Each week I will bring you a list of USAmerican players who have reached a new career-high ranking (CHR). This list covers all players in the Top 1000. Any player outside the Top 1000 will not be included unless they actually have earned at least one point from their previous career-high ranking. See all the CHR posts.

New WTA Career-High Rankings, February 16, 2015

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
Madison Brengle	45	46*	+1		2/2/2015
Nicole Gibbs	86	87*	+1		2/2/2015
Taylor Townsend	94	96*	+2		2/2/2015
Louisa Chirico	148	149*	+1
Alexa Guarachi	486	487*	+1
Nicole Frenkel	650	655*	+5
Daniela Roldan	879	883*	+4		2/2/2015
Emma Higuchi	885	889	+4		2/2/2015
Natalie Suk	894	897	+3		2/2/2015

Not much movement here, just players rising as others fell off. This is not surprising since the only women's tournament in the Western hemisphere in the past two weeks was the Midland $100K (week of February 2), the points for which were added last week. No Americans played the WTA events in Antwerp or Pattaya City which is unfortunate, but hopefully they're gearing up for this next huge stretch of Dubai/Rio, Doha/Acapulco, Indian Wells, and Miami. Quite a few players are playing Arizona $25Ks this month, but those results won't start showing up until the March 2 rankings.

The next six weeks is an especially important time for Chirico and Anna Tatishvili, both of whom, with very strong performances, could sneak into the French Open main draw. Tatishvili needs a little over 100 points, while Chirico needs more like 180 (a run to the 4th round of IW or Miami would do yield 120 points - huge ask, but with a great draw and great play, one never knows!).  

New ATP Career-High Rankings, February 16, 2015

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
Austin Krajicek	141	156	+15	152	11/17/2014
Bjorn Fratangelo	172	225*	+53
Jared Donaldson	174	180	+6	178	2/2/2015
Mitchell Krueger	293	302*	+9
Daniel Nguyen	296	297*	+1
Connor Smith	304	313*	+9
Stefan Kozlov	406	407*	+1
Peter Kobelt	537	540*	+3		1/19/2015
Alexander Sarkissian	548	551*	+3
Deiton Baughman	611	618	+7	617	2/2/2015
Andre Dome	998	1057	+59	1025	11/7/2011

Two huge moves at the top: Krajicek rode a masterful performance -- through qualifying and into the quarterfinals at the ATP 250 in Memphis -- to the Top 150, and his subsequent battle with eventual champion Nishikori turned a lot of heads. 

Although not everyone's:

@bradhunter @StephintheUS Harrison's career makes perfect sense to me. Re: Krajicek...I think he's 24. So, not a whole lot of upside.
— Juan José Vallejo (@jjvallejoa) February 15, 2015

Aaaanyway, moving along. The other huge result was Fratangelo's, who overcame hot prospect Chung Hyeon to take the Launceston Challenger, his first such title and a definitely statement win.

Although not everyone was impressed:

chung plays a 3h sf, has to get out back on court 12h later, fratangelo plays a 30 min set and gets a bye via a walkover. OH WELL.
— René Denfeld (@Renestance) February 15, 2015

well not a bye but yeah - i know who i'd put monhyeon long term. that's all.

— René Denfeld (@Renestance) February 15, 2015

Oh, Twitter.

Other moves:

Memphis: Donaldson got his first-ever ATP win, 75 60 over fellow teen wildcard Stefan Kozlov.

Launceston Challenger: Krueger got a nice three-set win over U.S. Open Junior champion Omar Jasika before losing to Chung in three.

Santo Domingo Challanger: By qualifying, Connor Smith picked up a few points. he just keeps creeping up...

Sri Lanka F1: Finally - awesome job, Andre Dome, who qualified and reached the quarterfinal before having to retire down 3-4 to Jan Satral. It's a big moment for anyone to break into the Top 1000 for the first time, but to do it at 24, and after last having set it over 3 years ago, is a special accomplishment.