WTA Rankings: Iga Swiatek tightens grip on No. 1 spot; Anna Kalinskaya cracks top 20
Jun 24, 2024
Florida [USA], June 24 : The top ten in the WTA rankings remained unaltered following the end of the Rothesay Classic in Birmingham and the Berlin Ladies Open.
Jessica Pegula won the WTA 500 championship in Berlin, capping the second week of the WTA Tour's 2024 grass swing. Pegula won twice on Sunday, first defeating Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals and then edging Anna Kalinskaya in the final after saving five match points.
Yulia Putintseva won her third title in Birmingham, a WTA 250-level event, by defeating Ajla Tomljanovic.
Players outside the top ten, such as Yulia Putintseva and Anna Kalinskaya experienced significant gains on Monday in the latest WTA rankings. The 25-year-old Kalinskaya climbed seven places from No.24 to No.17, entering the Top 20 for the first time.
Putintseva won her third singles title, and first on grass, by defeating Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1, 7-6(8) in the Birmingham Classic final on Sunday. The Kazakh tennis player moved up seven ranks in the WTA rankings, from 41st to 34th, after accumulating 220 points.
On the other hand, Kalinskaya produced an outstanding run to the final of the Berlin Ladies Open. The Russian fell to Jessica Pegula in three sets in the final match.
Putintseva and Tomljanovic were both given major rating improvements for their efforts in Birmingham. Putintseva, who won her first title since 2021 and the first of her career on grass, moves up seven positions to 34.
It is Kazakhstani's highest ranking since July 2022, and she is only seven positions away from her career high of No. 27 set in both 2017 and 2020.
Tomljanovic was competing in only her fourth tournament since undergoing surgery to remove non-cancerous uterine tumours, which sidelined her from January to May of this year.
But she hit the ground running, reaching her sixth career final, the first since Hua Hin 2019 and the first on grass. The Australian, who also missed the majority of the 2023 season with a knee operation, jumps 55 spots.
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek continued her domination in women's tennis, sitting at the top of the rankings with 11695 points.