Rankings Watch: Cirstea climbs, Barty hunkers down at World No.1

As the dust settles following an exciting week at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart and the TEB BNP Paribas Tennis Championship Istanbul, here's a look at highlights from this week's WTA Rankings:

Cirstea climbs the ladder

Sorana Cirstea captured her second career title by winning in Istanbul as her ranking jumped nine spots in this week’s rankings, the biggest jump among the Top 100. The move from World No.67 to No.58 marks her highest ranking since the week of September 24, 2018. 

For the 31-year-old Romanian, Istanbul marked her first title since October 2008 when she won her maiden WTA singles title at Tashkent as an 18-year-old.

The 12 years and 6 months marks the third-longest gap in WTA history between titles, behind only Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (16 years, 4 months: 1998 Bol to 2014 Quebec City) and Kimiko Date (13 years, 1 month: 1996 Tokyo (Japan Open) to 2009 Seoul).

Barty extends her stay at World No.1

By winning her WTA-leading third title of 2021 last week in Stuttgart, Ashleigh Barty has now taken the trophy in five of her last 11 tournament appearances, a streak that dates back to winning the 2019 WTA Finals. Barty has held the top spot for 73 of the last 77 weeks since making her debut at World No.1 on June 24, 2019.

In addition to extending her lead in the WTA Rankings, Barty also stakes claim to the top spot on this week’s Porsche Race to Shenzhen Leaderboard, overtaking Naomi Osaka.

Bertens returns to Top 10 after shuffle

Nine of this week’s Top 10 stayed the same, with Kiki Bertens replacing Petra Kvitova at World No.10. The defending champion in Stuttgart (from 2019), Kvitova replaced her 470 champion points from 2019 with 100 points for reaching this year’s quarterfinals. The 370-point differential caused Kvitova’s ranking drop to World No.12 this week, paving the way for Bertens' return to the Top 10.

Muchova leads career-high rankings among Top 50

Five players in this week’s Top 50 reached career-high rankings. Karolina Muchova makes her Top 20 debut at World No.20, bolstered by a run to her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal earlier this year at the Australian Open. Other career-high rankings this week are posted by No.28 Veronika Kudermetova, No.40 Jil Teichmann, No.43 Shelby Rogers, and No.46 Sara Sorribes Tormo. 

Krawczyk cracks doubles Top 20

Desirae Krawczyk makes her Top 20 debut in this week’s WTA Doubles Rankings. By reaching the Stuttgart final last week alongside Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Krawczyk jumped five spots in the doubles rankings, from World No.24 to No.19. She is one of three Americans in the Top 20 of the doubles rankings, along with World No.10 Nicole Melichar and No.16 Mattek-Sands.

Bartunkova adds to youth movement

Nikola Bartunkova (15 years, 60 days old) becomes the first player born in 2006 to earn an official WTA Ranking at World No.1006. The Czech teenager won her first round qualifying match in Istanbul last week, defeating Leonie Kung in three sets, before falling to Anastasia Gasanova.

At the time Bartunkova was born (February 26, 2006), Kim Clijsters owned the WTA World No.1 Ranking, followed by Amelie Mauresmo at No.2 and Lindsay Davenport at No.3. Additionally, Nicole Vaidisova (at No.13) was the highest-ranked Czech player.