New USA Career-High Rankings, March 9, 2015

Each week, On the Rise (a tennis blog) brings 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 have earned at least one point since their previous career-high ranking. See all the CHR posts.

New ATP Career-High Rankings, March 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
Jean-Yves Aubone	463	471*	+8
Peter Kobelt	489	526*	+37
Alexander Sarkissian	513	542*	+29
Tommy Paul	763	772*	+9
Wil Spencer	846	858	+12	849	11/24/2014
Dennis Uspensky	1281	1490*	+209

A very short list for both tours this week, with a mere 13 new career highs between the two. But every new career high - like every snowflake - is unique and special. So here's how the guys got here this week (all from Futures played in the Past):

USA F9/Sunrise

Last week we celebrated Aubone's first career high since before he was in college. As we noted, that didn't even include his performance from the prior week, where he reached the Sunrise semifinals. It's not a huge jump, but it gives him some cushion for June, when he has a big 28 points from his final-title combo in two 2014 Futures to defend.

The player Aubone beat in the quarters was Dennis Uspensky, the 18-year-old who has now had successive jumps of 147, 153, and now 209 rankings spots. Keep in mind, that only represents accumulations of 1, 1, and 2 points. It shows how big a point can be at that level of the rankings.

Uspensky, for his part, beat Wil Spencer. I'll have more on Spencer later this week. For now let's just say: AWESOME JOB on getting a main draw win after 15 qualies wins and no points to show for them.  Tommy Paul also got a first-round win in Sunrise, but fell to #1 seed Antal Van Der Duim in the second round.

Turkey F8/Antalya

Perhaps the most prolific world traveler among American Futures players is Peter Kobelt, who has been all over the place since starting his pro career in June. He reached third final in that stretch in Turkey, but for the third time came up short of the title. But he's now into the Top 500, a nice beautiful round number!

Australia F1/Adelaide

Alexander Sarkissian reached the semis of the first tournament of this swing before falling to (say it with me) U.S. Open Junior champ Omar Jasika. He'll join Kobelt in the Top 500 in two weeks, when the next rankings come out (nothing next week due to Indian Wells), thanks to his final at AUS F2.

New WTA Career-High Rankings, March 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
CiCi Bellis	215	244*	+29		2/9/2015
Caitlin Whoriskey	279	282*	+3
Bernarda Pera	293	299	+6	298	2/23/2015
Lauren Embree	322	324*	+2
Usue Arconada	663	709*	+46
Kelly Chen	714	716*	+2
Claire Liu	1221	n/a	n/a

Rancho Santa Fe $25K

With the, oh, let's just call it a DISASTER in Monterrey (Americans winning 0 main draw matches), all seven of our NCHers come from RaNCHo Santa Fe, held the week of February 23.

CiCi Bellis won her third career title - all US $25Ks - a week ago Monday and just needs a few more points to secure a Top 200 ranking and direct entry into qualifying for the French Open and Wimbledon. It wouldn't surprise any of us, however, if she had her sights fixed higher. She seems like a determined sort. Here's a good profile of her from Tennis.com.

Bernarda Pera was a quarterfinalist and had quite the event: demolishing #2 seed Shuko Aoyama 6-2 6-0, then scraping past Lauren Embree 2-6 6-4 7-6(4). But third set tiebreaks can give, and third set tiebreaks can take away - her next match was a loss to Sanaz Marand (her second loss in 2 weeks to the former UNCer) 7-6(4) 6-4 6-7(5).

Embree, Caitlin Whoriskey, and wildcard Usue Arconada all recorded first-round wins to help their cause, while Kelly Chen and Claire Liu, both wildcards, each earned a point just for playing their matches! In Liu's case, it was the third tournament at which she'd won a point, after qualifying for $25Ks in Florence, S.C., last October and Surprise, Ariz., earlier in February. Although she has yet to win a main draw match, she's now in the rankings at 14 years old. Congratulations, Claire!