The 2022 WTA season kicked off last week in Australia with three tournaments, the Adelaide International 1, a WTA 500 level event, along with a pair of WTA 250 tournaments staged in Melbourne.
A couple of longtime champions prevailed again, as did one of the tour's rising stars. Here are some of the rankings implications:
Barty’s reign continues
In Adelaide, Ashleigh Barty captured her 14th career singles title, where she extended her margin at No.1. She now holds a 1,700-point advantage over No.2-ranked Aryna Sabalenka. Since taking over as the WTA No.1 on Sept. 9, 2019, Barty has held the top ranking for 103 consecutive weeks, a streak that trails only Stefanie Graf (186), Serena Williams (186), Martina Navratilova (156) and Chris Evert (113) for most all time.
Overall, Barty has held the No.1 ranking for 110 weeks, the seventh most in history. Next up on the list is Justine Henin (117).
Barty completed the singles and doubles titles sweep in Adelaide. She captured the doubles trophy playing alongside Storm Sanders. Barty’s doubles ranking jumped 19 spots (to No.83).
Halep climbs back into Top 15
After seven consecutive Top 5 finishes (2014-2020), Simona Halep finished the 2021 season ranked No.20. With her 23rd singles title, at the Melbourne Summer Set 1, Halep moved up five spots in this week, from No.20 to No.15.
Anisimova title boosts ranking
At the Melbourne Summer Set 2 event, Amanda Anisimova captured her second career singles title. It was a week that included wins against No.5 seed Sorana Cirstea in her second-round match as well as a win over No.3 seed Daria Kasatkina in the semifinals. Anisimova improves 17 spots, from No.78 to No.61.
Other notable rankings movements
Playing as a qualifier last week at the Melbourne Summer Set 2, Aliaksandra Sasnovich advanced to the championship match, where she fell short in three sets to Anisimova. Sasnovich moved up 30 spots (from No.107 to No.77), marking the largest jump among this week’s Top 100.
Japan’s Misaki Doi reached the biggest semifinal of her career last week in Adelaide, a WTA 500-level tournament. Advancing to the semifinals for the sixth time in her career and first since September 2019 (Hiroshima, runner-up), Doi’s ranking jumped 29 spots, from No.105 to No.76. She returns to the Top 100.
Competing in just her fourth career main draw, Zheng Qinwen reached the semifinals in Adelaide as a qualifier before coming up short against Halep. By collecting 128 ranking points, she moves to a career-best ranking of No.111, up 15 spots from last week.
Twenty-one-year-old Kaja Juvan advanced to the quarterfinals in Adelaide. She climbed to a career-high ranking of No.86 this week, 14 spots better than she was last week.
2020 Australian Open junior champion Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva continued her rapid rise at the Bendigo ITF W60 last week. The 16-year-old Andorran qualified and reached the final, and has now won 22 of her last 29 matches. Jimenez Kasintseva climbs 53 places to a new career-high of No.202, and remains the youngest player in the Top 350.
By reaching the semifinals in Adelaide (with partner Nadiia Kichenok), former doubles World No.1 Sania Mirza moved to No.55 in this week’s doubles rankings, her highest since Aug. 27, 2018.
