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The WTA rankings update I am sharing today relates to a pretty crazy period of the season. Over the last seven days, four official WTA-level events have been played and completed. The three most prestigious of these tournaments were played in Asia, while there was one sole WTA-125 event played in France. As for the specifics, China hosted the largest of these four tournaments over the last week. This was the Zhengzhou Open – a WTA-500 tournament that was won by the home favorite, Qinwen Zheng. Yet there were also two WTA-250 events held in Korea and China too.
Concerning the winners of these events, it was Jessica Pegula who won the Korea Open while Leylah Fernadez surprised us all by winning the Hong Kong Open. Needless to say, the individuals who won these respective events have performed very well concerning today’s WTA rankings updates. But at the same time, any players involved in these tournaments who managed to make a deep draw run have also enjoyed a successful seven-day period.
As always, those who have fared the best and those who have fared the worst, are detailed through the respective sections below.
WTA rankings updates – week commencing October 16th
Contents
With a number of top-level tournaments on the go over the last seven days, there has been a fair bit of movement in the WTA rankings this week. This is typically the case when there are so many points up for grabs across the board. Furthermore, since this week consisted of two WTA-250 events and a single WTA-500 event, many of the players ranked inside the top 100 were in action.
So, starting with those players that have surged in the rankings this week, let me focus on three particular individuals before turning the attention to the red zone.
The week’s biggest climbers
Today’s WTA rankings updates reveal three players that have produced a serious leap. Each of the three players I am about to discuss managed to earn enough points to climb the rankings by 18 or more positions – a great achievement. And two of these players have jumped by more than 20 positions, which is very impressive. So, on that note, let me highlight the three biggest climbers of the week right now.
Katerina Siniakova: +25
Siniakova tops the list this week with a rather large jump of 25 positions up the WTA rankings. This adjustment has taken her from 85 in the world all the way up to 60, and if she continues on this current path, the 27-year-old could well break the top 50 before the season is over. As for why she is the biggest climber this week, Siniakova made the finals of the WTA-250 event in Hong Kong.
Laura Siegemund: +22
Laura Siegemund competed in the most prestigious of the four events taking place last week – the WTA-500 event known as the Zhengzhou Open. After coming through qualifying, she went on to win two main draw matches before losing in the quarter-finals. Of course, winning four matches en route to the quarter-finals in a tournament of this grade is no small feat. And thanks to the points earned from this run, she’s climbed inside the top 100 once again to find herself at 91.
Viktorija Golubic: +18
Golubic is the third biggest climber this week with a leap of 18 positions. Much like Siegemund, Golubic was outside of the WTA top 100 prior to the results last week, so this is a much-needed rankings leap. With that said, Golubic competed in the WTA-125 event in France, and by winning the tournament with the loss of just one set, she has managed to secure a ranking of 87 in the world.
The week’s biggest fallers
Double-digit climbs are all well and good for the players that secured such moves. However, the nature of tennis dictates that there must be losers for each of these winners to emerge. And for this week’s WTA rankings updates, there are a few players who have posted bigger losses than the rest.
Anna Blinkova: -15
The WTA rankings ladder can be a cruel place at times. Due to its rolling nature, Anna Blinkoa is the official biggest faller of the week, despite reaching the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Open. As the 5th seed in that event, she won three matches before losing to the ultimate champion, Leylah Fernandez. And in doing so, she’s slid 15 places to 52.
Danielle Collins: -14
Following a huge comeback during the North American swing, Danielle Collins has remained absent from the WTA Tour. As she continues to recover from injury, her absence has caused a slip in ranking from 33 down to 47 this week. This is a great shame since Collins was starting to play great tennis on the hard courts in recent times.
Xiyu Wang: -12
This 22-year-old Chinese player fills the spot as our third biggest faller of the week. Xiyu Wang played in the Hong Kong Open, much like some other players featured in these WTA rankings updates. However, it wasn’t a successful event for Wang, and she fell in the very first round to Siniakova. This takes her down 12 spots to number 70 as a result of this defeat.
Top WTA rankings story – Zheng takes home tournament victory
Although there were four tournament winners this week, Qinwen Zheng deserves the headlines today. The 21-year-old Chinese player was successful on home soil at the Zhengzhou Open, and she produced a couple of huge wins to make this happen. Specifically, she took out Maria Sakkari in round two, and she beat Barbora Krejcikova in an epic comeback in the final to capture the trophy. Of course, Sakkari is a top 10 player, and Krejcikova is right there as a top 15 player too.
These huge results have earned Zheng her second career title, which is incidentally her second title of 2023 too. And better still, she is now again ranked in the WTA top 20. Specifically, these WTA rankings updates put Zheng at 19 in the world, which is a jump of five places from the previous week.
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