New USA Career-High Rankings, April 20, 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 ATP Career-High Rankings, April 20, 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
Jack Sock	35	36*	+1
Austin Krajicek	116	121*	+5
Bjorn Fratangelo	165	166*	+1		3/23/2015
Jared Donaldson	170	179	+9	173	2/16/2015
Dennis Novikov	190	194*	+4
Daniel Nguyen	256	257*	+1
Alexander Sarkissian	389	456*	+67		4/6/2015
Eric Quigley	406	444	+38	428	2/23/2015
Francis Tiafoe	450	519*	+69
Wil Spencer	745	840*	+95
Raymond Sarmiento	842	860	18	855	11/17/2014
Eduardo Nava	908	910*	+2
Michael Grant	920	949*	+29
Jared Hiltzik	1047	1073	+26	1050	11/17/2014
Jeremy Hunter Nicholas	1100	n/a	n/a
Farzin Danny Amiri	1188	1247	+59	1204	11/10/2014
Raleigh Smith	1344	1450*	+106
Tomas Stillman	1564	1735	+171	1705	11/3/2014
John Lamble	1841	n/a	n/a

Jack Sock is getting closer and closer to a French Open seeding! He didn't play Monte Carlo but Nick Kyrgios didn't defend points so Jack moved up one. He's also not playing this week or next, so his big opportunities will have to come at Madrid and Rome.  Dennis Novikov, Daniel Nguyen, and Eduardo Nava also benefited from others' falling.

Although the Sarasota Challenger turned out to be a playground for the Argentines, there were enough wins to help America get a few new highs. Jared Donaldson (18) and Francis Tiafoe (17) each reached the quarters (Tiafoe as a qualifier); these teens are now at #4 and #5, respectively, for their age.  Austin Krajicek and Bjorn Fratangelo each won a round to put them in their new spots.

USA F12: In Harlingen, Texas, Alexander Sarkissian beat Eric Quigley in the final, and those results are reflected in these rankings (as with all Futures, they had to wait a week). Wil Spencer reached his second career semifinal, which Jeremy Hunter Nicholas (San Diego State) had an amazing run, qualifying, earning his first point by upsetting Evan Song in the first round, and then getting all the way to the semis thanks to a quarterfinal win over top seed Dimitar Kutrovsky.

Another rankings debutant thanks to qualifying and grabbing a win in Harlingen was John Lamble (Santa Clara University).  Farzin Danny Amiri, Jared Hiltzik, Raymond Sarmiento, and Tomas Stillman all aslo got first round wins and, as evidenced by the chart above, new career high rankings.

GRE F3: Michael Grant beat junior Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5 4-6 6-4.

TUR F14: Raleigh Smith won a round, picking up the 4th point of his career.

New WTA Career-High Rankings, April 20, 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
Sachia Vickery	126	139	+13	137	3/23/2015
Louisa Chirico	140	141*	+1		4/6/2015
Jennifer Brady	208	210*	+2
Caitlin Whoriskey	273	276*	+3
Katerina Stewart	276	277*	+1
Lauren Embree	277	279*	+2
Alexa Guarachi	444	471*	+27
Rianna Valdes	553	713*	+160
Kaitlyn McCarthy	856	999*	+143
Dasha Ivanova	861	973	+112	972	4/6/2015
Alexa Graham	896	907*	+11
Erica Oosterhout	995	n/a	n/a
Sophie Chang	1131	1171*	+40		4/6/2015

Not included: Malika Rose (1170), Carolyn Xie (1204)

Bogota: The big news at the top was Sachia Vickery's jump thanks to qualifying for Bogota (the only WTA event during Fed Cup week) and winning a round. Sachia is now up to #75 in the Road to Singapore (ahead of Svetlana Kuznetsova!) and will be fighting for a Roland Garros wildcard the next few weeks during the USTA Pro Circuit French Open Wild Card Challenge. She and Grace Min should have good seeds for all three events (Dothan, Alabama; Charlottesville, Virginia; and Indian Harbor Beach, Florida).

Also in Bogota, Louisa Chirico got a point in her 1st Round loss to top seed Elina Svitolina.

Jackson, Miss. $25K: A week+ ago, wild card Rianna Valdes reached the semis, accounting for her big zoom. Alexa Guarachi reached the quarters before withdrawing from the tournament, while Kaitlyn McCarthy qualified and won a round.  Alexa Graham and Sophie Chang each got wild cards, but as the ITF awards points for first round losers at this level, they achieved new career highs.  Caitlin Whoriskey similarly lost first round.

Meanwhile, Erica Oosterhout (who has commited to Harvard!) got to the second round and now has a WTA ranking. Congrats!

Leon, Mexico $15K: During the same time as Jackson, Dasha Ivanova qualified and reached the quarters.

Jennifer Brady, Katerina Stewart, and Lauren Embree all moved up due to others moving down.

This Week in American Tennis: 6 Takeaways

1. Mary Joe has got to goe? There's no doubt that under captain Mary Joe Fernandez, USA exceeded expectations just a few years ago by getting to consecutive WTA finals without Serena Williams, Venus Williams, or any Top 25 player. But in the past 5 years, it's been desperate straits. 2016 will mark our third year out of the World Group since our 2010 final. (In fact, no non-European country will be in the World Group next year.) Italy has made mincemeat of us in our last 5 meetings - even when they brought their B team to the US last year.

It feels like we're getting out-maneuvered, and certainly out-passioned. I'm certainly not on the inside of the team, but when it comes to sideline demeanor and strategy changes it's tough to see what she's bringing to the table. Maybe it's time for a cheerleader?

And what about being able to get the best players on the team? Having Serena and Venus was huge for our February win in Argentina. Once Venus withdrew from this tie, would Fernandez have been better off choosing a doubles specialist? And why was Christina McHale on the team over, say, Madison Brengle?

(For the record, here's what Courtney Nguyen has reported about the most obvious choice, Madison Keys.)

Got some questions re Madison Keys skipping @FedCup tie: Read: http://t.co/QSmGJifxNU
— Courtney Nguyen (@FortyDeuceTwits) April 19, 2015

In any case, I think perhaps the time has come for a change. Many people have mentioned Lindsay Davenport, who is the most obvious choice, but who may not want to stretch her responsibilities even further. Sam Davis suggested her or Lisa Raymond. I suggested Chanda Rubin, Venus Williams (perhaps as a player/coach), or even Murphy Jensen, who has had success coaching teams of pros with the Washington Kastles.

As Courtney points out, WG2 is going to be very rough next year. And as we saw this weekend, even having Serena on the team does not guarantee a win over a good team. Fernandez had immediate success when she took over, not dissimilar to Captain Courier. But I can't help but think a new face at the top might help us overcome our doldrums and get us in contention for the title in a couple of years.

2. Serena loses her amazing undefeated record in Fed Cup. She was 11-0 coming into this weekend, but had a tough match against Camila Giorgi and then was 2 points away from victory vs. Sara Errani before winning in three sets.  But then she and Alison Riske won only 3 games in doubles against Errani and Flavia Pennetta.

Regardless, she has to be commended for her amazing record. No, she wasn't available all the time and yes, like for many others the Olympics played a part in determining when she would play but she was a member of the last 2 Americans squads to win a Fed Cup title, in 1999 and 2000, as well as winning several Olympic gold medals for the US.

Let's hope she plays our first round next year. Whoever we face, it'll be doozy-licious, no doublt.

3. Bryan Brothers are just damn remarkable. 106 titles as a team. 33 Masters Series 1000 titles. They're still behind the team the beat in the final, Simone Bolelli & Fabio Fognini, in the Race to London, but it's not hard to imagine they'll be where they belong, in first place, by the time Roland Garros comes around.

4. Sarasota sadness. It was not a great first stage of the USTA Pro Circuit French Open Wild Card Challenge, with Americans getting beat handily by several Argentinians. In fact, outside a 1st Round loss by wildcard Dennis Novikov to Gastao Elias (POR), the Americans lost exclusively to Argentinians or other Americans.

The ray of sunshines were Frances Tiafoe, who came through a rough qualies draw to advance to his first career quarterfinal, and the man who defeated him - Chase Buchanan - who reached the semis for his best run of 2015.

Then there was this pretty damn awesome comeback win by Bjorn Fratangelo over #3 seed Paolo Lorenzi. He went on to get crushed by Tiafoe but it showed me a lot of guts from the kid.



5. Little Rock title for Jason Jung! It's the 3rd career singles title for the 25-year-old, and the first since 2013. He didn't drop a set until the final, in which he beat the speedy Darian King 6-4 in the third. Jung will be near a new career-high ranking in a week. Next up is the Guadalajara Challenger, and then off to challengers in Taiwan and South Korea to try to defend his points and perhaps pick up enough more to secure a spot in Wimbledon qualies.

6. The Soaking of Pelham 1-2-3. From following the scores, it was a rough, rough week for competitors at the only women's event going on in North America. While some Americans were in Italy for Fed Cup, and a number played in the WTA tournament in Bogota or flew to Stuttgart for next week's Premier Tournament, there were still plenty of American women (and girls) in the draw. But boy, between the rain that delayed most of THE SECOND ROUND until Saturday, and the inability of any US woman to get past the second round, I'm going to go ahead and say it was one of the more forgettable American tournaments, for Americans, in a long while.

Oh and the doubles was canceled so so good news from that front.

I guess 4 out of 8 qualifiers were American, and three of THOSE were Alexandras: Stevenson, Mueller, and Stiteler.

6a. During Pelham, America got a new player! Welcome to Edina Gallovits-Hall got her US citizenship on Wednesday - aka Tax Day, aka my birthday - and ITF changed her affiliation from Romania in the middle of the tournament.

Gold Stars: John Isner - won 2 matches in Monte Carlo and stayed in the Top 20, Eric Quigley (Little Rock semifinal & doubles final), Matt Seeberger (Little Rock doubles final), Irina Falconi (Bogota quarterfinal - her first WTA QF since Birmingham 2012 - plus Bogota doubles final) & Shelby Rogers (Bogota doubles final), and Teliana Pereira (first career WTA title - go South 'merica!).

New USA Career-High Rankings, April 13, 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 13, 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 Keys	17	20	+3	18	3/2/2015
Jennifer Brady	210	212	+2	211	2/2/2015
Caitlin Whoriskey	276	278*	+2
Katerina Stewart	277	294*	+17
Lauren Embree	279	295*	+16
Alexa Guarachi	471	472*	+1
Ellie Halbauer	537	548*	+11
Nadja Gilchrist	542	546*	+4
Alexandra Morozova	544	549*	+5
Ingrid Neel	552	556*	+4
Usue Arconada	656	657*	+1
Rianna Valdes	713	716*	+3
Brynn Boren	863	865*	+2
Alexa Graham	907	910*	+3
Tina Tehrani	949	1016*	+67
Caroline Dolehide	976	977*	+1
Yuki Kristina Chiang	995	996*	+1
Kaitlyn McCarthy	999	1001*	+2
Alexandra Valenstein	1076	1107*	+31

Not included: Carolyn Xie (1207)

Charleston: Madison Keys had a great week, reaching the final and just a handful of points away from the title. She's now positioned herself for a possible Top 16 seed at Roland Garros, but it won't be easy - she's 266 points behind Venus Williams, who herself is 200+ points behind a group of 4 women in the 12-16 range. Of those, Errani is defending the most points (nearly 900) but of course she can defend those if she plays her best clay tennis. In any case, it's something to keep an eye on.

Ellie Halbauer picked up a point for her first-round qualies loss there, as a wild card.

Medellin $50K+H: Two Americans - Lauren Embree and Katerina Stewart - qualified and won a round, but went out to the eventual South American finalists in this clay court tournament. There are 2 points and 6.5 years separating these two relative neophytes (Embree was in college for four years and didn't play too many pro events before then).

Manama (Bahrain) $10K: Tina Tehrani picked up 2 points with a run to the quarters.

Heraklion (Greece) $10K: Alexandra Valenstein qualified and won a main draw match, good for a point.

Everyone else benefited from others dropping points.

Note: Nicole Frenkel set a career high last week (April 6) but we overlooked her among the 937 other women on that list. We've added her since!

New ATP Career-High Rankings, April 13, 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
Jack Sock	36	46	+10	41	1/12/2015
Austin Krajicek	121	141*	+20		2/16/2015
Dennis Novikov	194	195*	+1
Daniel Nguyen	257	270*	+13
Frances Tiafoe	519	520*	+1
Eduardo Nava	910	969*	+59
Michael Grant	949	975	+26	969	3/23/2015
Matt Seeberger	1478	1627	+149	1573	1/6/2014

Not included: Walker Duncan (1435), Raleigh Smith (1450), Alexander Centenari (1963)

Houston: Jack Sock dropped the first set of the tournament against Joao Souza, and then no more sets in his run to the title. In his third tournament of the year, he's had 6 top-40 wins and is well positioned for his first Grand Slam seed in Paris. A couple of wins at either Madrid or Rome could do the trick.

Leon Challenger: Austin Krajicek took the title with a pretty epic final. He won't get direct entry into Roland Garros (unless he nabs the USTA Pro Circuit French Open Wild Card Challenge wild card, of course) but he's got a chance in the next few weeks to get a very high seed for qualies. As it is, he's only 61 points out of the Top 100. Really an incredible year for the Aggie. Watch the final here:



Also in Mexico, Daniel Nguyen reached the quarters (tied for his best result at a challenger, the other coming in February in Morelos, Mexico) and isn't too far out of French Open qualies contention.

Tunisia F12: Eduardo Nava reached his second consecutive quarterfinal in Tunisia. The 18-year-old is now 5-3 on the year in main draws, with his only losses to players ranked in the Top 400.

Greece F2: Michael Grant (USC) grabbed a point here.

Indonesia F1: Matt Seeberger d. Suthinan Tanthaseraneewat (THA) 6-3 2-6 6-1 to pick up a point and reach a new career high at age 30!

Novikov and Tiafoe benefited from others' dropping points.

This Week in American Tennis: 26 (short) takeaways

1. Jack Sock wins his first ATP tournament in Houston. Been a huge Sock guy for a while. Not only extremely talented, but has a knack for winning.

2. Sock has a shot at a seed at Roland Garros. Just 3 tourneys this season and already up to #35 in the Race. New career-high ranking of #36. And he beat 2 top-20 guys (noted America-killers Roberto Bautista Agut & Kevin Anderson) in the process.

3. Eye of the tiger.

#jacksock is one of 4 active players to have won a major doubles, major mixed doubles & ATP singles title. Others: Paes, Mirnyi & Melzer
— Jonathan Kelley (@jokelley_tennis) April 13, 2015

4. Final for Sam Querrey. Sure he coulda done better in that final but he played great nearly all week. First final since 2012 - that's huge!

5. Then Querrey dropped out of Monte Carlo. Which is totes understandable. Such a tough turn-around for Americans, who need to decide whether they're coming home afterward or staying in Europe through the end of Wimbledon.

6. I know, the Aussies are all like "cry me a river, mate."

7. Madison Keys continues to impress. Sure she shoulda held from 40-0 at 5-5 in the 3rd set but still, a second premier final, the one on Charleston clay, with a very-near-win against a higher ranked player, and a new career-high ranking of #17!

8. (And a Road to Singapore ranking of #8!)

9. In praise of Austin Krajicek. Singles title at the Leon Challenger. Doubles title at the Leon Challenger with Rajeev Ram. New career-high ranking of #121. Race ranking of #71! I'm of firm belief that Krajicek could be a Top 10 doubles guy if he focused just on that. But I love what he's accomplishing in singles. One or two good results during the USTA French Open Wild Card Challenge could get him direct entry to Wimbledon. And I think his game could put a scare into a couple of guys on the grass.

10. Speaking of the USTAFOWCC ... It started today in Sarasota for the men! Draw here.

11. And Mike C. is back on the mic!

12. The Little Giant towers in Leon. First career title for Danielle Lao at the $15K, saving at least 6 match points in the semi!

13. For the second straight US Futures tournament, all four semifinalists at the were American. Six of 8 quarterfinalists, too (it was 7 of 8 in Calabasas). The big winner was Alexander Sarkissian, the 2014 NCAA finalist who is now just 4 points behind the 2014 NCAA champion, Marcos Giron (sadly out of commission). Blog favorite Eric Quigley was the other finalist, with blog favorite Wil Spencer a semifinalist.

14. And most out-of-nowhere, Jeremy Hunter Nicholas - the Utah-originating, former Aztec - qualified and won his first career main draw match. Then his second. THEN HIS THIRD - over #1 seed Dimitar Kutrovsky (who had his own crazy adventure in the first round). And he won the doubles title with Deiton Baughman. Impressive.

15. RG prospects: Grace Min's rough start to 2015 means she'll likely miss the Roland Garros main draw cut-off. But we should still have 15 women directly in (assuming Bethanie Mattek-Sands still has the option of using a special ranking), plus the wild card. 6 men will make it directly, not counting the wildcard.

16. Sock, Querrey, CoCo Vandeweghe & Sloane Stephens all with a chance at a Roland Garros seed depending on the how the next few weeks go.

17. Well hey there Claire Liu. Lookit you, winning the Easter Bowl at 14.

18. Taylor Fritz is the Truth. I can't even tell you how impressive it was for him to win the Easter Bowl given that he was playing in China a couple of days before. No, the competition wasn't quite what it was in Chengdu. But his opposition came to play, starting in the first round with qualifier Caleb Chakravarthi. Just such an amazing title.

19. Especially given that third round situation against Patrick Kypson.

20. Oh and he was called Taylor Swift :D

@Tennis oh it's true pic.twitter.com/XxhvmJM0lH
— Jonathan Kelley (@jokelley_tennis) April 11, 2015

21. Francis Tiafoe signs with RocNation. Apparently there's a fellow with the initials JZ and it's a big deal that he's getting into tennis, because the cool kids will now be all hip to that.

22. Did we say Francis? We meant Frances.

23. Frances Tiafoe registers two tough wins over American veterans (then qualified today) in Sarasota.

24. US women reached triple digits in wins. Last year it took them until Madrid to get there. More on that in subsequent posts.

25. Denis Kudla did well to qualify for Monte Carlo and drew another qualifier! (Unfortunately, that was a resurgent Benoit Paire. Kudla out.)

26. Captain Mary Joe Fernandez selects Serena Williams and Venus Williams for Davis Cup against Italy. Shrewd! Alison Riske and Christina McHale also will be making the trip. It should be a terrific tie. I'll try to get a preview up by the end of the week.

Gold stars: Cameron Klinger (great run to the Easter Bowl quarters where he pushed Fritz to a third set with some brilliant play), Sam Riffice (Easter Bowl final), Alexa Guarachi & Caitlin Whoriskey (Jackson $25K doubles champions), Rianna Valdes (Jackson semifinal), Sania Mirza (yes, she's not American, but whatevs, I AM GIVING HER A GIANT GOLD STAR ANYWAY).