Red-hot Anett Kontaveit made her Top 10 debut, Luisa Stefani hit a milestone and Elise Mertens reached the pinnacle again. Needless to say, it is an eventful week in this week’s rankings.
Streak pushes Kontaveit to Top 10 debut
Anett Kontaveit closed the regular season in remarkable fashion, winning 26 of her final 28 matches and capturing four titles - Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca [Transylvania Open] – in her final seven tournaments. Her only losses came against Ons Jabeur in Indian Wells and Iga Swiatek at the US Open. (Kontaveit withdrew from the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic following her first-round win.)
At the start of the stretch, Kontaveit, 25, held a singles ranking of No.30. Ten weeks later, she is making her Top 10 debut, with a career-high of No.8, earning the distinction as the highest-ranked Estonian women’s tennis player in history.
SHE'S DONE IT!!!!! 🏆 🏁
— wta (@WTA) October 31, 2021
🇪🇪 Anett Kontaveit defeats Halep in Cluj to win her 4th title of 2021 and secure her place in the @WTAFinals for the first time!#TransylvaniaOpen pic.twitter.com/cgQKqgxukO
Champions Corner: The remarkable turnaround of Anett Kontaveit
Svitolina’s streak ends
Rankings points from the 2019 Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen and 2019 Hengqin Life WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai dropped off this week. Among those most impacted is 2019 WTA Finals runner-up Elina Svitolina. With 1080 points dropping off, Svitolina falls from No.6 to No.14, ending her streak of 212 consecutive weeks in the Top 10.
In addition, Naomi Osaka (No.10 to No.13) and Belinda Bencic (No.9 to No.17) also fell out of the Top 10. Osaka dropped 225 points this week, while Bencic, a semifinalist at the 2019 WTA Finals, lost 625 points. With Svitolina, Osaka and Bencic leaving this week’s Top 10, Angelique Kerber and Iga Swiatek both return to the Top 10.
With Svitolina’s streak ending, current WTA World No.1 Ashleigh Barty owns the longest active streak for consecutive weeks (116) in the Top 10.
Vekic makes significant jump
Entering last week ranked No.97 after an injury-hit season, former World No.19 Donna Vekic won the title at Courmayeur, her first WTA title since 2017 Nottingham and the third of her career. With her title Sunday, Vekic owns the largest rankings jump among those in this week’s Top 100. She climbs 30 spots, to No.67.
Mertens back atop doubles ranking
In the past eight weeks, the WTA doubles No.1 ranking has changed hands six times, with Hsieh Su-Wei, Elise Mertens and Barbora Krejcikova each holding the top spot. Mertens returns to the top of the doubles rankings, her 12th week overall.
Brazil’s Luisa Stefani makes Top 10 debut
For the first time in WTA Rankings history, a Brazilian woman has reached the WTA Top 10. Luisa Stefani moved up from No.11 to No.9 in this week’s doubles rankings. This year, Stefani has reached six doubles finals, winning the title in Montréal while playing with Gabriela Dabrowski.
Zanevska hits Top 100 threshold
Belgian 28-year-old Maryna Zanevska makes her Top 100 debut his week after capturing the ITF W80 title in Les Franqueses del Vallès, Spain. Zanevska collected 130 ranking points and jumps from No.103 to No.82.
Zanevska, who won her maiden WTA trophy in Gdynia this summer, had approached the Top 100 twice before in her career (hitting No.107 in September 2013 and No.105 in August 2017), before finally making her debut this week.
Other notable rankings movements
Two players make their Top 50 debuts this week. Tereza Martincova was not in action last week, but the Czech player owns a 26-20 record in WTA main draws this year and rises three places from No.51 to No.48. Meanwhile, Marta Kostyuk reached her third semifinal of the season in Cluj-Napoca and is boosted five spots from No.55 to No.50. Kostyuk, 19, becomes the fourth 2002-born player inside the Top 50, joining Emma Raducanu, Leylah Fernandez and Clara Tauson.
A semifinalist in Cluj-Napoca last week, Rebecca Peterson jumps 18 spots, from No.99 to No.81. It was the Swede's third semifinal showing since August, following the Chicago Women's Open and Nur-Sultan.
Misaki Doi captured the ITF W80 title last week in Tyler, Texas, collecting 120 rankings points; her ranking improves from No.107 to No.98.
France’s Chloe Paquet is on a 10-match winning streak after winning the Netanya ITF W25 trophy two weeks ago, and backing it up with her biggest title to date at the Poitiers ITF W80 last week. The 27-year-old leaps 39 spots to a new career-high, moving from No.165 to No.126.