New USA Career-High Rankings, April 27, 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, April 27, 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	36	43*	+7
Louisa Chirico	121	140*	+19
Katerina Stewart	230	276*	+46
Caitlin Whoriskey	272	273*	+1
Lauren Embree	276	277*	+1
Ellie Halbauer	500	541	+41	537	4/13/2015
Rianna Valdes	550	553*	+3
Alexandra Stiteler	757	777	+20	763	2/2/2015
Marie Norris	777	788	+11	779	11/3/2014
Claire Liu	820	825	+5	823	4/6/2015
Jessica Failla	824	829	+5	825	4/6/2015
Sofia Kenin	825	830	+5	826	4/6/2015
Jessica Ho	827	832	+5	828	4/6/2015
Kaitlyn McCarthy	827	856*	+29
Dasha Ivanova	831	861*	+30
Alexa Graham	892	896*	+4
Erica Oosterhout	893	995*	+102
Raveena Kingsley	942	n/a	n/a
Carolyn Xie	1172	1204*	+32

Not included: Sophie Chang (1130).

The big story of the week is yet again Ms. Madison Brengle, who rocketed through the Stuttgart draw to reach her first career Premier level semifinal, beating Petra Kvitova along the way. She's defending absolutely nothing until Wimbledon, and some women ahead of her are defending points. In other words, notwithstanding her tough loss this morning to Barbora Strycova, she's got a Wimbledon seed nearly in her pocket. And honestly, losing early in Prague isn't the worst thing, given that she had a long week in Stuttgart and has two big weeks coming up in Madrid and Rome. A decent draw in either one, and she'll be seeded in Paris. Fantastic.

Dothan $50K: Louisa Chirico beat Katerina Stewart in the final and both had huge ranking rises associated with that. If she somehow doesn't win the French Open wild card, Chirico will be seeded in the French Open qualies and given her love of the surface, you have to think she'll have a great chance. Then comes grass: a surface she's never played a pro match on. I'll be surprised if she can make the transition easily but I hope she can! Stewart, meanwhile, almost certainly missed out on French Open qualies but she could still nab the wild card (a win Wednesday in her Chirico rematch will help). She's defending points in the next two months so Wimbledon qualies are certainly riding on what happens the next couple of weeks. But she should be playing juniors regardless, so that's nice.

Marie Norris and Kaitlyn McCarthy each picked up a point by winning a round in qualies. Caitlyn Whoriskey picked up a point for playing in the first round, and also added points from the prior week's second round at the ...

Pelham $25K: Ellie Halbauer qualified and won a round, and Raveena Kingsley was a wild card who won a round and is making her debut in the WTA rankings!!  Alexandra Stiteler qualified.  Erica Oosterhout won a couple of rounds in qualifying.

Dasha Ivanova picked up 1 point for playing a match (as a wild card).

Heraklion $10K: Carolyn Xie won a round and picked up 1 point.

The other players moved up thanks to others moving down.

New ATP Career-High Rankings, April 27, 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	115	116*	+1
Bjorn Fratangelo	160	165*	+5
Jared Donaldson	168	170*	+2
Jason Jung	194	287	+93	276	2/23/2015
Connor Smith	248	292	+44	287	3/2/2015
Adam El Mihdawy	281	302	+21	295	7/23/2012
Kevin King	287	349	+62	322	7/21/2014
Frances Tiafoe	381	450*	+69
Alexander Sarkissian	388	389*	+1
Eric Quigley	392	406*	+14
Tommy Paul	641	720	+79	718	4/6/2015
Wil Spencer	739	745*	+6
Eduardo Nava	905	908*	+3
Michael Grant	917	920*	+3
Oscar Fabian Matthews	1023	1130	+107	1024	9/8/2014
Matt Seeberger	1369	1479	+110	1478	4/13/2015

Big news from the challenger circuit, as twin North American events in Savannah, Ga. (on green clay) and Guadalajara, Mexico (on hard) benefitted several players.

Savannah: Bjorn Fratangelo and Frances Tiafoe each reached semifinals to position themselves as #2 and #1, respectively, in the French Open wild card race. Fratangelo has only 18 points from a Futures title to defend until after Wimbledon, so depending on how his trip to Europe goes, we could be seeing him knock on the door of the Top 120. After that he's got some real work to do. Tiafoe, meanwhile, has literally THREE POINTS to defend until February 2016. And just tonight he beat his first Top 100 player in Facundo Bagnis. I think it's fair to say that, as long as he's healthy and schedules smartly, he has not reached his 2015 ceiling.

Jared Donaldson reached the quarters and is showing flashes of brilliance. But he has a LOT of points looming in June - last year he won three Futures events that month. Hopefully he doesn't put too much pressure on himself on his European adventure. 17-year-old Tommy Paul won his first-ever challenger match in Savannah, a feat he repeated today in Tallahassee, so he'll move up yet again.

Guadalajara: Although Austin Krajicek was poised to have a good week (and did in doubles, winning the title), he fell in the first round, winning only 2 games against Giovanni Lapentti. But he moved up thanks to Andrey Golubev's drop. However, great weeks were had by Jason Jung (first challenger final), Connor Smith & Kevin King (first challenger semifinals), and Adam El Mihdawy (quarterfinal). 

USA F13/Little Rock: Jason Jung won this a couple of weeks back, which added to Guadalajara assured him a place in the Roland Garros qualies. A massive achievement for the former University of Michigan stalwart. Eric Quigley reached the semis, which Alexander Sarkissian and Oscar Fabian Matthews got to the quarters. Wil Spencer and Matt Seeberger each won a round to pick up a point.

Eduardo Nava and Michael Grant each advanced due to others' retreating.