Tennis News

The WTA’s Top 10 stayed in place after a week in Doha, which saw World No.3 Karolina Pliskova take home the title at the Qatar Total Open. But there were plenty of shifts for players right on the bubble, as a pair of former Top 5 players continued to chip away at their rankings.

Here are the biggest ranking movers this week after Doha:

Caroline Wozniacki +3 (No.18 to 15): Former World No.1 Wozniacki continued her comeback during the WTA’s Middle East Swing, storming to the final at the Qatar Total Open and posting wins over Monica Puig and No.6 Agnieszka Radwanska along the way.

The last time Wozniacki was ranked inside the Top 10 was in September 2015 (No.6), and with her strong showing in Doha she’s vaulted up to No.15 and closing in on a return to the game’s highest echelons.

“I feel like I’m playing really good tennis. I can still improve on some things,” Wozniacki told press after the final in Doha. “I’m really feeling positive and confident moving forward, and most of all I’m just trying to stay healthy.

“When I’m staying healthy, I can play great tennis. I can work really hard and improve my game. I’ve really put in a lot of work. It’s shown in the results. Hopefully I can keep up my level and keep improving.”

Samantha Stosur + 2 (No.21 to 19): Earlier in the season at Taipei City, Stosur halted a dismal trend of first round losses dating back to August 2016 that saw her ranking – and her confidence – take a dip. Now, the former Grand Slam champion is back inside the Top 20 after a run to her second consecutive WTA quarterfinal in Qatar.

Monica Puig +5 (No.47 to 42): Olympic champion Puig jumped up five spots to No.42 after an appearance in the semifinals in Doha. The run will do wonders for the Puerto Rican’s confidence: aside from regaining her world-beating form to put together dominating performances over Laura Siegemund and Daria Kasatkina, it’s the first semifinal Puig has reached since her fairy tale run to the gold medal at the Olympic tennis event in Rio.

Lauren Davis +9 (No.55 to 46): The 23-year-old American continued to back up the form that saw her claim her maiden WTA title earlier in the season at the ASB Classic in Auckland. Davis successfully qualified for the main draw at the Qatar Total Open, and went on to stun No.6 seed Elena Vesnina on her way to the quarterfinals, earning her first Top 20 win of the year.

Her season-long consistency has paid off, earning her a ranking jump to inside the Top 50, landing at No.46 – just three spots shy of her career high No.43.

Click here to check out the updated WTA rankings, as of February 6.

LONDON, Great Britain – No.5 seed Simona Halep sealed her passage into the final 16 at Wimbledon with a commanding straight sets victory over the No.26 seed Kiki Bertens, advancing 6-4, 6-3 under the roof of Centre Court on Saturday.

Halep grabbed an early spot into the fourth round at a Wimbledon still plagued with rain delays, which have left even some second round matches still up in the air and forced the almost-unprecedented choice to schedule play on Middle Sunday.

The Romanian has stayed cool throughout the bad weather, though, and has yet to drop a set at the All-England Club. Bertens, her opponent, came into the matchup having won the last 12 of 13 matches – including a run to the French Open semifinals – and amassing a lot of confidence along the way.

The heavier conditions under the roof seemed to favor the Dutchwoman, and she opened the match with a break. Halep quickly restored parity in the next game,

Bertens found herself having to hit one extra ball more often than she wanted to as the diminutive Halep covered the court line to line. Halep dug up a forehand that landed behind her to a wrong-footed Bertens who could do little more than hack at it as she was broken once again for 4-2.

The No.5 seed finally took the first set as Bertens’ first serves seem to abandon her and Halep unleashed some of her biggest forehands of the match.

After the five breaks of serve in the first set, the second went much more smoothly for the World No.5 as she broke once on Bertens’ opening service game to build up an assertive 3-0 lead.

Bertens held her nerve to force the No.5 seed to keep herself in it and serve it out at 5-3 and even held a break point after a HawkEye challenge went her way, but a pair of commanding points won on Halep’s forehand dashed Bertens’ hopes of forcing a decider.

The Romanian will get a day’s rest tomorrow before she’s set to face the winner between Alizé Cornet and Madison Keys.

More to come…

Simona Halep makes light work of Kiki Bertens, coming through 6-4 6-3 in 68 mins to reach the second week #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/hOxLfctDz4

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 2, 2016

DUBAI, UAE – Chan Hao-Ching and Yaroslava Shvedova shocked top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic to make it through to the semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

The fifth-seeded pair won through in a thrilling decider to take the match 7-5, 3-6, 10-3.

“We lost in a super tiebreaker and still I think we had lots of opportunities,” said Mladenovic afterwards. “We had a big lead in the first set and I think we should have closed it out and won probably, but it’s tennis, and the girls are playing well as well and in the third set anything can happen.”

Mladenovic was not too disappointed, however, adding that she and Garcia were both working on their singles game while competing in doubles.

“It’s not easy, it’s just our second tournament of the year,” she said. “I still think we had a good run in Melbourne – lost in the semis – here we had a tough tournament. It’s our goal this year, we are going to be more focused on our singles and we are trying new things, like we are switching sides every set and like really working on our singles game.”

The 23-year-old remains hopeful that she and her partner will impress over the course of the year.

“It’s just the beginning of the season,” she pointed out. “We are looking forward, the season is very long and Indian Wells, Miami coming up soon so everything is positive.”

Second seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina progressed in a topsy-turvy clash with Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, winning 6-1, 3-6, 10-5.

Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai had a straightforward quarterfinal against Chan Yung-Jan and Martina Hingis, winning in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.