New USA Career-High Rankings, August 24 & 31 AND Sept. 14

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

Note: Unfortunately I missed doing the biweekly Career-High Rankings update on August 31 (in part because it was the first day of the US Open) so here we go with THREE weeks of CHRs: August 24, August 31, and the post-US Open rankings of September 14. I'm going to try something a bit different: just list their rankings each week. 

• If that ranking was a new career high, it will be noted in bold. 
• If it tied his or her previous career high, it will be noted with an asterisk.* 
• If it marks his or her debut in the ranking it will be noted in red.

New ATP Career-High Rankings, August 24-September 14, 2015

Player name	8/24/15 ranking	8/31/15 ranking	9/14/15 ranking	Previous CHR	Date achieved
Jack Sock	35	30	28	30	6/15/2015
Denis Kudla	74	75	77	78	8/17/2015
Jared Donaldson	146	146	142	150	8/3/2015
Alexander Sarkissian	207	207	193	201	7/27/2015
Frances Tiafoe	275	257	253	271	8/17/2015
Kevin King	299	304	284	287	4/27/2015
Tommy Paul	430	437	345	429	8/3/2015
Wil Spencer	568	560	555	561	7/20/2015
Clay Thompson	592	599	586	588	8/10/2015
Taylor Fritz	678	685	667	675	7/27/2015
Mico Santiago	705	711	684	707	8/10/2015
Eric Johnson	975	982	717	964	8/3/2015
Alex Rybakov	811	818	721	849	8/10/2015
Alexios Halebian	783	753	765	776	7/13/2015
Michael Grant	942	852	844	896	7/20/2015
Justin Shane	813	819	854	928	12/1/2014
Reilly Opelka	1024	1035	868	1104	3/2/2015
Cameron Silverman	1064	1046	936	1029	7/20/2015
Winston Lin	997	1003	982	993	8/17/2015
Hunter Nicholas	1002	1008	986	987	8/3/2015
Raleigh Smith	1158	1172	1069	1155	7/20/2015
Gonzalez Austin	1249	1265	1202	1244	8/3/2015
Samuel Shropshire	1614	1451	1417	1499	7/29/2013
Alexander Centenari	1690	1720	1462	1693	7/27/2015
Tim Kopinski	1870	1893	1582	1940	8/5/2013
Olukayode Ayeni	n/a	n/a	1729	1458	7/29/2013
Robert Levine	n/a	n/a	1729	n/a	n/a
James Wasserman	n/a	n/a	1729	n/a	n/a
Konrad Zieba	n/a	n/a	2150	n/a	n/a

Rather than cover how all 29 men and 18 women achieved new CHRs, I thought it better for everyone to provide some highlights:

Sock & Kudla: Born 5 weeks apart, opponents in the last all-American U.S. Open junior singles final prior to 2015, and the two highest ranked American men with new CHRs in the past few weeks. Jack Sock didn't do much - a win in Cincinnati, a win at the U.S. Open - but it was better than last year, when he lost first round at both tournaments. Denis Kudla also didn't do much, but given that he was inactive at this time last year with mono, just the two qualifying wins in Cincinnati got him enough of a boost to grab that CHR.

"Juniors": I put that in scare quotes because as of now, most (but not all) of them are done playing junior tournaments. Donaldson, Tiafoe, Paul, Fritz, and Opelka have all gone pro, and will continue to push themselves and each other. Rybakov is heading to college where he will have among the highest ATP rankings of all the players.

Paul, of course, was the lone American male to qualify for the U.S. Open. Tiafoe qualified for Winston-Salem then won a match there in a 3rd set tiebreak before losing his 2nd round match in a 3rd set tiebreak. Donaldson beat Nicolas Mahut in Cincinnati. Opelka won a round in U.S. Open qualifying. Rybakov reached a Futures quarterfinal then a semifinal.

USCers: Michael Grant reached successive quarterfinals at 2 Futures in Gabon; Eric Johnson won a Futures in Israel.

Newbies: Welcome to the rankings, courtesy of your first ATP point! 16-year-old Olukayode Ayeni scored a win over Dennis Nevolo at a Futures in Calgary, Canada. 18-year-olds Robert Levine and James Wasserman each got a win at a different Futures in Canada (Winnipeg). And 20-year-old Northwestern University student Konrad Zieba got a win at a Futures in Poland.

New WTA Career-High Rankings, August 24-September 14, 2015

Player name	8/24/15 ranking	8/31/15 ranking	9/14/15 ranking	Previous CHR	Date achieved
Irina Falconi	72	73	64	69	6/29/2015
Samantha Crawford	220	221	217	218	7/8/2013
Kristie Ahn	311	313	248	304	6/15/2009
Robin Anderson	416	419	406	463	5/26/2014
Ellie Halbauer	428	431	412	425	8/10/2015
Nicole Frenkel	424	427	423	456	8/17/2015
Alexa Graham	539*	534	530	539	8/17/2015
Claire Liu	827	834	536	817	6/8/2015
Julia Jones	643	648	567	635	8/3/2015
Lauren Herring	671	676	588	669	8/17/2015
Michaela Gordon	625	631	612	619	7/27/2015
Raveena Kingsley	n/a	n/a	650	n/a	n/a
Sofia Kenin	765	778	661	756	7/27/2015
Jaeda Daniel	749	754	753	754	7/27/2015
Sophie Chang	808	819	808*	825	8/10/2015
Maegan Manasse	832	838	835	846	8/10/2015
Karyn Guttormsen	879	888	887	934	8/17/2015
Nicole Coopersmith	n/a	n/a	897	n/a	n/a

College women: No fewer than 7 college or former college players made the list. Falconi continues to be the highest, and her accomplishments continue to impress. She picked up a win at the U.S. Open before dropping an entertaining three setter to Venus Williams. Robin Anderson reached the Landisville $25K final. Lauren Herring reached the semis of a $15K in Mexico, as did Julia Jones. Karyn Guttormsen notched 2 wins at a $10K in Tunisia.

And Kristie Ahn got her first new CHR since 5 months into the first Obama administration, by virtue of winning a $25K tournament in Winnipeg.

Crawford: A tip of the visor to Samantha Crawford, whose career didn't take off as some expected after winning the 2012 US Open girls' singles title, but who, somewhere out of nowhere, reached the final of the $50K in Lexington last month. That proved enough to get her near her 2013 career high, and the 10 points she earned by playing the first round of the U.S. Open was enough to put her over the top. She'll jump into the Top 200 on Monday after adding her Quebec City run this week, and will very likely spend the rest of the year there, as she's only defending 21 points the rest of the fall.

Juniors: Halbauer (18) - Landisville $25K 2R, Frenkel (17) - Landisville QF, Graham (17) - Landisville FRQ, Liu (15) - U.S. Open FRQ!, Gordon (16) - Winnipeg $25K 1R, Kingsley (17) - U.S. Open 2RQ (welcome!), Kenin (16) - U.S. Open 1R loss, Daniel (16) - Westende $25K 1R (qualified), and Chang (18) - Landisville 1R (qualified) are some of the up & coming talent for USA.

A huge congratulations to Coopersmith, who qualified for a $10K in Cakovec, Croatia, and went on to beat 5 players, including 4 seeds (3 of whom are Top 500 players) to win the tournament. Her mother, Maja Palaversic Coopersmith, was a Yugoslavian, then Croatian pro who had a career high of #117. One of her wins was over Roberta Vinci, which is kind of crazy if you think about it. Anyway, way to go, Nicole!