UK: 18+ USA: 21+ | Begambleaware.org | T&Cs apply | Play Responsibly
While everyone has been talking about the Australian Open over the last week, understandably, many players have been picking up points by competing in 250 and 500 events. The WTA Tour played host to one of each from January 9th to January 14th, and these tournaments have impacted the January 16th WTA rankings updates. Surprisingly, quite a few heavy hitters entered the two 250 events last week, even though the Australian Open was set to begin on January 16th.
With that said, some players prefer to have a tune-up on the match court directly before a Grand Slam. As for others, they prefer to take a rest week since Grand Slam competitions can be incredibly demanding both mentally and physically. And in case you didn’t follow the action last week, these two tournaments were the Hobart International and the Adelaide International.
Since top players were engaged in these events, as expected, the WTA rankings have experienced quite an adjustment too. Therefore, if you’re excited to see how the rankings have changed in just one week, keep reading.
Week Commencing January 16th – WTA Rankings Updates
Contents
I shall be focusing on the WTA top 100 right here to keep the spotlight on the top players on tour. This is even more relevant with the arrival of the 2023 Australian Open for these current rankings run. Of course, it’s been a great week for some, whereas, for others, they’d probably wish to have the last week again to change how things turned out.
Anyway, all of the tennis last week has been played and it has resulted in the following changes:
The Week’s Biggest Climbers
Of all the WTA players inside the top 100, the week belongs to the experienced American, Lauren Davis. The 29-year-old put in one of her best-ever performances to win the Hobart International without dropping a single set. On her way to the title, she beat fellow American, Sloane Stephens, as well as Blinkova, Wang, and the second riser of the week in the finals, Elisabetta Cocciaretto. This awesome run has earned Davis the biggest rise in rankings of anyone inside the top 100, boasting a jump of 27 places to number 57.
Of course, since Cocciaretto was her victim in the final, this young Italian is subsequently the second biggest riser this week. The 21-year-old chose to compete in the 250 Hobart International instead of the higher-graded Adelaide International. And it would seem that her decision turned out quite well.
Along the way, she beat a couple of top seeds before ultimately losing in the finals to Lauren Davis. However, if you’d told her that her ranking would be boosted by 19 spots and that she’d reach the final before the week unfolded, I’m sure she’d have signed the papers! And thanks to such a rise, she is now ranked 48 in the world, which is a great position to be in for this promising player.
The Week’s Biggest Fallers
Things look nice and green next to the names of Davis and Cocciaretto in the WTA rankings. However, the dreaded color of red is next to a few names in a big way as of the most recent rankings update. Specifically, there are two players who have dipped by double-figure changes over the last week. These two players are Garbine Muguruza and Tamara Zidansek, unfortunately for them.
Muguruza dropped by a pretty harsh 15 places this week, putting her at a ranking of 73 going into the Australian Open 2023. This puts Muguruza as the biggest faller of the week from January 9th to January 16th. And for a previous Grand Slam champion, I have no doubts that this is concerning for Muguruza and her team. Yet she’s not alone in suffering a big drop this week. Tamara Zidansek has also fallen by a double-digit figure of 10, dropping to a new ranking of 98.
Needless to say, nobody wants to be on the verge of dropping outside of the top 100 in the WTA rankings. Yet Zidansek did go out in the first round of the Hobart International after qualifying. So she clearly didn’t have a great week prior to the start of the 2023 Australian Open. And something else I’d like to point out at the other end of the scale is a 5 place rankings slide from Paula Badosa.
She’s gone from number 11 in the rankings to number 16. Although since the Australian Open draw was done before these rankings were updated, her seed in the women’s singles hasn’t suffered as a result.
Top Rankings Stories
Although I haven’t yet discussed this ranking change above, I have to bring it to your attention as a top story. The winner of the Adelaide International last week was the swiss player, Belinda Bencic. She went into this tournament as the number 8 seed, and therefore, she wasn’t expected to win the event. Yet Bencic has slowly but surely been showing signs of her former self in recent months, and she was playing awesome tennis last week. Adding to that, when she went up against the fifth seed, Kasatkina, in the finals, she dismantled her higher-ranked opponent by a score of 6-0, 6-2.
But this wasn’t the only impressive match that she played during the tournament. Bencic beat former Grand Slam champion, Muguruza, in the opening round. She then backed this up with wins over Kalinskaya, 4th-seeded Garcia, 6th-seeded Kudermetova, and then Kasatkina in the finals. And over the whole week, Bencic dropped just one set, which came against Garcia. So obviously, Bencic is playing the kind of tennis necessary to take down the best players on the WTA Tour.
As for the impact on her ranking, this run has taken Bencic back inside the top 10. She’s jumped three spots in the last week from 13 to 10. And depending on how she does at the Australian Open, who’s to say she cannot get back to her career high of number 4? I’m excited to watch and see if she can get back up there.
Subscribe to Punditfeed on Google News for all the latest updates from the world of sports!