New USA Career-High Rankings, Feb. 9, 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 ATP Career-High Rankings, February 9, 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
Bjorn Fratangelo	225	242*	+17
Dennis Novikov	270	271*	+1
Daniel Nguyen	297	298*	+1
Mitchell Krueger	302	311*	+9
Connor Smith	313	318*	+5
Stefan Kozlov	407	412*	+5
Eric Quigley	463	486	+23	475	12/22/2014
Alexander Sarkissian	551	552*	+1
Tommy Paul	799	882*	+83
Michael Grant	994	1052	+58	1051	11/10/2014
Reilly Opelka	1107	1197	+90	1194	12/8/2014
Raleigh Smith**	1722	1728*	+6

Notes: Bjorn's Big Boost came via his quarterfinal run in the Burnie Challenger, which was unceremoniously halted by Alex Bolt (the same young man who took out Bradley Klahn and Tennys Sandgren en route to the final). It's Fratangelo's 4th career challenger QF, and his third since the U.S. Open.  Burnie also brought us Krueger's first round win over Di Wu, worth 7 points.

The Dallas Challenger was responsible for Quigley's new high - he beat Cameron Norrie to pick up 8 big points.

In Futures, USA F6 a couple of weeks ago saw semifinals for Tommy Paul and Connor Smith and a quarterfinal for Opelka.

A big congrats to USC grad Michael Grant's quarterfinal run at the Great Britain F2 a week ago! In celebration of his jumping into the Top 1000, here's a link to a story about his Hoops 4 Hope fundraiser.

**Finally, even though it breaks my new rule not to include someone who didn't add points and is ranked below 1000, Raleigh Smith is included because I neglected to include him in last week's list. The former Northwestern University star made his debut last week thanks to a surprise first-round win vs. Chuhan Wang at USA F3! To make up for that oversight, here's Raleigh's Big 10 Medal of Honor tribute video:

New WTA Career-High Rankings, February 9, 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
Louisa Chirico	149	182*	+33		12/29/2014
CiCi Bellis	244	248*	+4
Caitlin Whoriskey	290	316*	+26		12/22/2014
Bernarda Pera	301	324	+23	321	8/18/2014
Lauren Embree	335	338*	+3
Katerina Stewart	339	351*	+12
Alexa Guarachi	487	497*	+10
Nicole Frenkel	655	723*	+68
Usue Arconada	722	745*	+23
Alexa Graham	966	n/a	n/a
Dasha Ivanova	979	1106*	+127
Sofia Kenin	1027	n/a	n/a	1058	9/22/2014

Left off: Caroline Dolehide (who played fantastically in a loss to Jovana Jaksic)

A much shorter list than last week's monstrosity, and like the men, nothing in the double digits (due in this case to a lack of tour-level tournaments). 

Midland $100K - Chirico made the final, while Whoriskey and Pera reached the quarterfinals, giving them all significant jumps. Chirico has about 40 points to defend until Roland Garros, meaning a couple of great results in the next 2 months could put her within shouting distance of the main draw. Pera and Whoriskey, both chasing entry into French Open qualies, have only 19 and 6 points to defend, respectively.

Sunrise $25K - Kenin picked up a point (and jumped back in the rankings) via a 1st round loss to Michelle Larcher de Brito. Stewart and Bellis each won a round (and 5 points) at that tournament.

Petit-Bourg (Guadeloupe) $10K - Frenkel beat Ivanova in the semis at this tropical tournament, while Arconada and Guarachi made the quarters. Finally, a first-round win over Jada Robinson was the third point-bearing tournament Alexa Graham needed to make her WTA Ranking debut!