New WTA career-high rankings, September 29, 2014
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
|
Nicole Gibbs
|
89
|
92*
|
+3
| ||
Madison Brengle
|
98
|
110*
|
+12
| ||
Louisa Chirico
|
194
|
197*
|
+3
| ||
| Jennifer Brady |
326
|
354*
|
+28
| ||
Danielle Lao
|
357
|
361*
|
+4
| ||
Caitlin Whoriskey
|
388
|
410*
|
+22
| ||
Tornado Alicia Black
|
407
|
409*
|
+2
| ||
| CiCi Bellis |
425
|
426*
|
+1
| ||
Katerina Stewart
|
434
|
435*
|
+1
| ||
Michaela Gordon
|
759
|
761*
|
+2
| ||
Alexandria Stiteler
|
830
|
848
|
+18
|
848
|
8/25/2014
|
Emma Higuchi
|
931
|
959
|
+28
|
953
|
8/4/2014
|
Maria Smith
|
977
|
1002*
|
+25
| ||
Terri Fleming
|
1028
|
1029*
|
+1
|
This week isn't as big as last week's 24-player bonanza, but it's still a healthy representation of relative US women's tennis health.
The breakout star of this week was by any measure Madison Brengle. By winning the Las Vegas $50K ITF tournament without dropping a set, Brengle broke into the top 100 for the first time in her 10-year career, Brengle showed what true perseverance can accomplish. This is a woman, of course, who famously failed to qualify for a major in 25 attempts. She was then given a wild card to the US Open this year and got a first-round win. Maintaining her Top 100 ranking through the end of the year is no gimme - she has a number of ITF points to defend in the coming weeks and she's signed up to play European indoor WTA qualies. One or two good results there and it could be Top 100 for several months for the Delawarean.
I discussed Brady and Whoriskey a bit last week but as long as they keep doing good work, I'll keep writing about them. Whoriskey got a big win over Chirico in the first round of Las Vegas, only to lose to former Top 30 player Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4 in the third (she was up 4*-3 if I remember correctly). Still, she's showing she can compete at a high level week after week, which is all you can ask. Brady got to the LV quarters after taking out Melanie Oudin in two tiebreaks, and lost 7-5 in the third to Tatishvili (after serving for the match at 5*-4, again if I remember correctly). Hopefully both young women find motivation from those close calls.
Lastly, a shout out to Emma Higuchi. The 16-year-old won a round of qualies in Las Vegas and took the first set off Alexa Glatch in her return-from-injury tournament. (Glatch would go on to lose her first round match in three sets to Nicole Vaidisova, making her own comeback. SO MANY COMEBACKS!
New ATP career-high rankings, September 29, 2014
Muuuuuuch better this week from the men. Johnson didn't do anything to get his new career high except root for Joao Sousa to lose early in Kuala Lumpur, which is what happened. Donaldson, however, had to do considerably more to break into the Top 300 for the first time - namely, reach his first challenger semifinal in Napa. He came pretty close to getting to the final, only to come up just short against Tim Smyczek. But the new pro showed plenty of game and pretty much guaranteed nobody will want to see him in any upcoming draw.
Nguyen is a name we've seen a lot over the course of these updates. His appearance this week comes on the heels of qualifying for Napa and taking out Frank Dancevic in the first round. He was then upset by top collegiate Julian Lenz (who lost to JD in the quarter). With only 16 of his 123 points to defend through next May, the former Trojan could very well put himself in a position to play major qualies next year.
Two other names to highligh this week: Dennis Novikov and Peter Kobelt. Novikov took advantage of a wildcard and a good draw (he beat fellow wildcard Matt Seeberger) to reach the second round of Napa, where he lost in three sets to eventual semifinalist Alex Bolt. The former Bruin has only *4* points to defend through May. Kobelt, meanwhile, continues his tour of foreign futures events and picked up 15 big points by making the Sweden F6 final a couple of weeks ago. He's got nothing to defend until June and more Futures planned, so don't be surprised if he shows up a few more times before the year is out.
I discussed Brady and Whoriskey a bit last week but as long as they keep doing good work, I'll keep writing about them. Whoriskey got a big win over Chirico in the first round of Las Vegas, only to lose to former Top 30 player Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4 in the third (she was up 4*-3 if I remember correctly). Still, she's showing she can compete at a high level week after week, which is all you can ask. Brady got to the LV quarters after taking out Melanie Oudin in two tiebreaks, and lost 7-5 in the third to Tatishvili (after serving for the match at 5*-4, again if I remember correctly). Hopefully both young women find motivation from those close calls.
Lastly, a shout out to Emma Higuchi. The 16-year-old won a round of qualies in Las Vegas and took the first set off Alexa Glatch in her return-from-injury tournament. (Glatch would go on to lose her first round match in three sets to Nicole Vaidisova, making her own comeback. SO MANY COMEBACKS!
New ATP career-high rankings, September 29, 2014
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
|
Steve Johnson
|
46
|
47
|
+1
|
9/8/2014
| |
Jared Donaldson
|
299
|
342
|
+43
|
303
|
8/25/2014
|
Daniel Nguyen
|
362
|
382*
|
+20
| ||
Connor Smith
|
378
|
379*
|
+1
| ||
Dennis Nevolo
|
379
|
381*
|
+2
| ||
Dennis Novikov
|
436
|
481
|
+45
|
450
|
7/14/2014
|
Peter Kobelt
|
605
|
689*
|
+84
| ||
Ryan Shane
|
1034
|
1140
|
+6
|
1093
|
7/14/2014
|
Justin Shane
|
1109
|
1110*
|
+1
| ||
Tommy Paul
|
1144
|
1204
|
+60
|
1195
|
7/21/2014
|
Michael Grant
|
1146
|
1150*
|
+4
| ||
Collin Johns
|
1157
|
1161*
|
+4
| ||
Erik Elliott
|
1334
|
1340
|
+6
|
1338
|
9/8/2014
|
Cameron Silverman
|
1342
|
1344*
|
+2
| ||
Clay Thompson
|
1660
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
1774
|
9/23/2013
|
Muuuuuuch better this week from the men. Johnson didn't do anything to get his new career high except root for Joao Sousa to lose early in Kuala Lumpur, which is what happened. Donaldson, however, had to do considerably more to break into the Top 300 for the first time - namely, reach his first challenger semifinal in Napa. He came pretty close to getting to the final, only to come up just short against Tim Smyczek. But the new pro showed plenty of game and pretty much guaranteed nobody will want to see him in any upcoming draw.
Nguyen is a name we've seen a lot over the course of these updates. His appearance this week comes on the heels of qualifying for Napa and taking out Frank Dancevic in the first round. He was then upset by top collegiate Julian Lenz (who lost to JD in the quarter). With only 16 of his 123 points to defend through next May, the former Trojan could very well put himself in a position to play major qualies next year.
Two other names to highligh this week: Dennis Novikov and Peter Kobelt. Novikov took advantage of a wildcard and a good draw (he beat fellow wildcard Matt Seeberger) to reach the second round of Napa, where he lost in three sets to eventual semifinalist Alex Bolt. The former Bruin has only *4* points to defend through May. Kobelt, meanwhile, continues his tour of foreign futures events and picked up 15 big points by making the Sweden F6 final a couple of weeks ago. He's got nothing to defend until June and more Futures planned, so don't be surprised if he shows up a few more times before the year is out.
