Rankings Watch: Kvitova returns to Top 10, Liu jumps to career high

WTA World No.1 Ashleigh Barty extends her stay at No.1 to 75 total weeks atop the rankings, while Belgium’s Elise Mertens makes her debut at No.1 in the doubles rankings. Here is a week at this week’s notable rankings movement:

Sabalenka Cracks Top 5

This week, Aryna Sabalenka cracked the Top 5 for the first time in her career, following her title run in Madrid. With back-to-back finals, the Belarusian reached a career-best ranking of No.4. Sabalenka has advanced to three singles finals this year, the second-most on tour behind Ashleigh Barty.

Madrid Semifinalists

After becoming the first Spanish player to reach the semifinals of the tournament in Madrid, Paula Badosa climbed to a career-high ranking of No.42. The 23-year-old Spaniard jumped 20 spots in this week’s WTA Rankings, the largest jump among the Top 100. She also overtakes Sara Sorribes Tormo as the second-ranked Spanish woman.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova returned to the Top 30, jumping 11 spots from No.41 to No.30. In the process, Pavlyuchenkova moved to the Russian No.2 behind only Veronika Kudermetova. Pavlyuchenkova’s quarterfinal effort in Madrid pushed her past Ekaterina Alexandrova and Daria Kasatkina.

Kvitova Returns to Top 10

By reaching the quarterfinals in Madrid, Petra Kvitova solidified her return to the Top 10 this week as she moved from No.12 to No.10.

WTA 125K Success

Viktorija Golubic won the title at last week’s WTA 125K Series event in Saint-Malo. She climbed 12 spots to No.72 in this week’s rankings. After finishing the 2020 season ranked No.137, Golubic reached back-to-back finals as a qualifier at Monterrey and Lyon before winning the title last week. 

Italy’s Jasmine Paolini returned to the Top 100 at No.93, equaling her career-high ranking, after finishing as the runner-up last week in Saint-Malo.

Liu’s Leap

American Claire Liu won back-to-back ITF Circuit titles at ITF/$60k Charlottesville and ITF/$100k Charleston. Because Madrid was a two-week WTA 1000 tournament and the WTA Rankings were last updated the week of April 26, Liu adds 236 ranking points this week from both events. The 20-year-old American moves to a career-high ranking of No.129. She leaps 43 spots, the largest jump among the Top 200 this week.

Mertens Climbs to Doubles No.1

For just the second time in Rankings history, a Belgian owns the WTA World No.1 ranking in doubles as Elise Mertens has climbed to the top. Kim Clijsters reached the top spot on August 4, 2003 and held the No.1 doubles ranking for a total of four weeks.

This Week in Rome

This week, the WTA Tour visits Rome for another WTA 1000 tournament. With a shift in the calendar and Ranking System adjustments, points earned at Rome in 2019 points will drop on the next ranking run, Monday, May 17. The 2020 Rome points will remain on for 52 weeks -- if the 2020 points are more than the 2021 points. If 2021 points are greater, only those will be included in a player’s ranking summary.

For example, Karolina Pliskova won the Rome title in 2019 and those 900 points will drop off from her ranking. Her points from 2020 (runner-up, 585 points)  will be included in her ranking summary unless she wins the title, in which she would count only her points earned in 2021.