Three of the four semifinalists at last week's Nürnberger Gastein Ladies in Bad Gastein achieved career-highs in the new Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings on July 27.

Before Yaroslava Shvedova's final four showing, she had only previously been that far at one other Tour event, winning Bangalore in February 2007. This is the third straight week she's reached a career-high, having been at No.65 on July 13, then No.57 on July 20 after reaching the quarters at Palermo, and now after losing to eventual champion Andrea Petkovic in Bad Gastein, she's at No.51, one spot from her first venture into the Top 50.

Ioana Raluca Olaru jumped from No.66 to No.53 after reaching her first Tour singles final, where she lost to Petkovic. She cracked the Top 100 for the first time after advancing to the third round of the 2007 French Open and achieved her previous career-high of No.55 in October of that year.

As for Petkovic, she had a tremendous ascension, from No.98 to No.61, after her remarkable run to her first Tour singles title in which she won five matches in a row, despite never having won consecutive main draw matches on Tour before. Her previous career-high of No.91 was achieved in January 2008. The only semifinalist not to reach a career-high in the new rankings was Alizé Cornet, though she did rise from No.28 to No.26.

A couple of competitors in last week's other Tour event in Portoroz also made noise in the rankings. Stefanie Voegele went from No.87 to a career-high of No.75 after losing in the semis and Alberta Brianti rose from No.106 to No.89 after also falling in the final four.