Friday, September 18, 2015

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! 

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