New USA Career-High Rankings, Nov. 16-30, 2015

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.

This here is the penultimate new CHR update for 2015. I'll post a final one in a few weeks. Enjoy!

Guide:

• If the 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 WTA Career-High Rankings, November 16-30, 2015

Player name	11/16/15 ranking	11/23/15  ranking	11/30/15  ranking	Previous CHR	Date achieved
Louisa Chirico	109	110	111	110	6/8/2015
Samantha Crawford	155	146	141	172	10/26/2015
Kristie Ahn	212	211	207	208	11/9/2015
Asia Muhammad	232	230	234	243	9/22/2014
Robin Anderson	282	281	280	319	11/9/2015
Julia Jones	481	484	487	485	11/9/2015
Sabrina Santamaria	492	495	501	525	11/9/2015
Raveena Kingsley	613	606	610	610	10/26/2015
Sophie Chang	651	653	656	731	11/2/2015
Yuki Kristina Chiang	669	657	660	696	11/9/2015
Andie Daniel	707	689	690	718	10/26/2015
Jessica Wacnik	721	716	723	746	11/9/2015
Kylie McKenzie	776	778	785	778	8/3/2015
Shelby Talcott	1266	1157	1122	1253	10/12/2015
Miranda Ramirez	1266	1233	1234	n/a	n/a
Eva Siskova	1266	1233	1234	n/a	n/a
Akiko Okuda	n/a	1269	1271	n/a	n/a
Sophia Bursulaya	n/a	n/a	1271	n/a	n/a

Highlights:

Louisa in Limoges: After big wins over Heather Watson and Alize Cornet to reach the Washington, DC WTA quarterfinals, it was a rough go for 19-year-old Louisa Chirico, with only 2 wins in her next 6 tournaments. She made the trip to Europe for the fall indoor swing, and had a couple of rough losses, falling in a third-set tiebreaker to Tereza Martincova in Luxembourg qualies and then leading Carina Witthoeft 5-2 in the third at the $100K in Poitiers, France, before losing the last 5 games of the match. But then came a semifinal at the $50K in Nantes and she wrapped up her season with her first WTA final, at the $125K in Limoges, featuring wins over Annika Beck and Francesca Schiavone before falling to Caroline Garcia in the final. Louisa will likely be one of the top seeds in Australian Open qualies

Scottsdale Sam (or Carlsbad Crawford): The same week Chirico was doing work in France, Samantha Crawford dramatically won her first pro tournament at the Scottsdale $50K to secure the Australian Open wild card. She followed that up with a run to the Carlsbad $125K quarters. Others who did well in those last two big US tournaments were Robin Anderson (Scottsdale semifinal) and Kristie Ahn (first career WTA win at Carlsbad before losing to eventual champion Yanina Wickmayer).

Asia in Australia! Asia Muhammad followed up her Canberra $50K title with a run to the semis in Bendigo. Her Australian success came at a huge moment for her career - halfway through the 6-tournament trip, she was down to #404 in the world, with no quarterfinals reached in over a year. Now she's positioned herself for Australian Open qualies and, with only two dozen points to defend through next May, is primed to make a run toward the Top 200.


New ATP Career-High Rankings, November 16-November 30, 2015

Player name	11/16/15 ranking	11/23/15 ranking	11/30/15 ranking	Previous CHR	Date achieved
Dennis Novikov	133	133*	134	138	11/2/2015
Frances Tiafoe	182	178	180	221	11/9/2015
Taylor Fritz	207	176	177	205	11/2/2015
Mitchell Krueger	233	225	225*	230	10/22/2015
Sekou Bangoura	351	348	348*	369	10/19/2015
Stefan Kozlov	356	355	353	354	8/3/2015
Ernesto Escobedo	395	388	390	393	11/9/2015
Evan King	417	413	411	426	7/28/2014
Mackenzie McDonald	461	379	376	456	11/2/2015
Eric Johnson	564	562	557	669	11/9/2015
Clay Thompson	603	472	471	586	9/14/2015
Alexios Halebian	648	638	642	651	11/2/2015
Alex Rybakov	731	656	602	721	9/14/2015
Justin Shane	830	806	897	813	8/24/2015
Winston Lin	905	874	873	916	11/9/2015
Gonzales Austin	918	782	784	933	11/2/2015
Nathan Pasha	925	925	915	917	10/26/2015
Nick Chappell	1096	1095	1025	1072	7/29/2013
Maksim Tikhomirov	1126	1125	1122	1123	11/2/2015
John Lamble	1223	1223	1218	1221	11/9/2015
Hunter Callahan	1675	1127	1124	1393	7/9/2012
Korey Lovett	1762	1754	1760	n/a	n/a
Mitch Stewart	1997	1992	1609	1861	8/3/2015
Patrick Kypson	n/a	1754	1877	n/a	n/a
Henrik Wiersholm	n/a	n/a	902	n/a	n/a
Denis Nguyen	n/a	n/a	1551	n/a	n/a
Gianni Ross	n/a	n/a	1761	n/a	n/a

Highlights:

Those teens AGAIN AGAIN: It's becoming a broken record, but they keep climbing so I keep recording. 5 American teens improved on their career highs, most notably Frances Tiafoe, thanks to his final run at the Knoxville Challenger, and Taylor Fritz, thanks to his final run at the Champaign Challenger. (Two guys who couldn't notch wins after their Charlottesville Challenger final -- Noah Rubin and Tommy Paul -- will have to wait until January to get back on the CHR list.) Stefan Kozlov got a boost with a first round win over top seed Malek Jaziri in Knoxville, while Ernesto Escobedo rose when others ahead of him fell. Finally, Alex Rybakov jumped nearly 120 spots with back-to-back Futures finals in Niceville and Pensacola, Florida.

Mackie & Clay: By reaching the Champaign semis, former UCLA teammates Mackenzie McDonald and Clay Thompson made big jumps -- McDonald into the Top 400 for the first time, and Thompson into the Top 500. McDonald will be back in school to start 2016, so another huge jump will likely have to wait, but hopefully Thompson can take his momentum and become a regular in Challenger main draws next year.

Welcome, welcome: Speaking of teens, how about that Henrik Wiersholm? The former junior standout and UVA Cavalier earned his first ATP point after qualifying for the Pensacola Futures, then beating fellow teen Patrick Kypson (who had just earned his first ATP point the previous week) by the improbable score of 0-6 7-6(3) 6-1. He then ran off four more wins to capture a dang title, beating Rybakov in the final. It goes to show how deep the group of guys is from the 1996-1998 cohorts.