Brady and Gauff move to career-high rankings after successful WTA Tour return
JENNIFER Brady and Coco Gauff led a host of players now at their career-high rankings after the first three WTA Tour tournaments have been put in the books. Brady took out the title at the Top Seed Open to move nine places up to 40th in the world for the first time in her career, while 16-year-old Gauff is inside the top 50 once again, at a career-high 48th.
Jil Teichmann was also a prominent mover with the Swiss 23-year-old’s Top Seed Open final effort getting her back up to an equal career-high 54th in the world. The biggest mover was former top 25 player, 29-year-old Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu who reached a semi-final in Prague to jump 12 places into number 70. It was a good tournament for the Romanians, with Simona Halep extending her lead in second spot on the rankings, and Ana Bogdan moving up five places into 87th.
The biggest mover inside the top 200 by far was American Shelby Rogers, who reached a semi-final at Lexington, defeating top 10 star Serena Williams, and now finds herself inside the top 100 at world number 95 – a full 21 places higher than pre-tournament. While she is still someway off her career-high ranking of 48, she is making inroads to get there. Others who made moves were Canadian 17-year-old Leylah Fernandez (plus nine to 11th), veterans Ukranian Lesia Tsurenko and Belarusian Olga Govortsova (plus six and plus eight respectively), as well as Magdalena Frech (plus 16) and Leonie Kung (plus nine).
The most promising move was that of 21-year-old American Catherine Bellis who has made a great return to the circuit by a quarter finals appearance at Lexington. Ranked outside the top 300 pre-tournament, Bellis reached a quarter final to move up a massive 53 sports to now be ranked 249th in the world. The only one who moved more spots was Canadian Eugenie Bouchard who bolted up 58 ranking spots into number 272 with the former top five player hoping to resurrect her career this season. Given the delicate nature of the COVID-19 situation, no players fell particularly hard given points are being carried over to the following year for tournaments not being played, with only those moving up subsequently bumping others down.
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