The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, a WTA 500 tournament, was staged last week in the United Arab Emirates as former WTA World No.5 Jelena Ostapenko captured her fifth career singles title. Here is a look at how last week’s results impacted the WTA Rankings:
Ostapenko’s Fifth Career Title Provides Ranking Boost
Last week Jelena Ostapenko defeated four Grand Slam champions in Dubai en route to capturing her fifth career singles title. Ostapenko’s road to the championship was challenging as she recorded wins over Sofia Kenin, Iga Swiatek, Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep before cruising past Veronika Kudermetova in the final.
Insider Wrap: The numbers behind Ostapenko's Dubai resurgence
Ostapenko’s success in Dubai came after reaching the semifinals in St. Petersburg as the 24-year-old Latvian has won eight of her last nine matches. Following her success over the past two weeks, Ostapenko’s ranking has jumped from No.25 (the week of February 7) to No.13 in the latest WTA Rankings, her best ranking since the week of October 1, 2018.
New Career-High For Kudermetova
Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova has already reached two singles finals in her first four tournaments of the 2022 season. A finalist last week in Dubai, Kudermetova also finished as runner-up at Melbourne 250 #1 in her first tournament of the season. Following her success in Dubai, the 24-year-old reached a career-high ranking of No.25 this week as her ranking jumped six spots (from No.31). Kudermetova has been ranked inside the Top 50 every week since September 9, 2019, a streak of 129 consecutive weeks.
Other Notable Ranking Movement
Varvara Gracheva collected 80 ranking points last week in Dubai. Gracheva earned her spot in the main draw as a qualifier and defeated Ajla Tomljanovic in the opening round of the main draw before falling short in the second round. The Russian’s ranking jumped eight spots, moving up from No.80 to No.72.
Belgium’s Greet Minnen's ranking improved 12 spots (from No.91 to No.79) following her win at an ITF Circuit tournament in Altenkirchen, Germany.
14-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova has won 10-straight matches on the ITF Circuit and has posted a 13-1 record to start the 2022 season. Most recently, Fruhvirtova defeated former World No.59 Paula Ormaechea in the final in Tucuman, Argentina, as she captured her second ITF title of the season. As a result, Fruhvirtova’s ranking jumped 176 spots this week (from No.611 to No.435) as she prepares to make her WTA main draw debut in Guadalajara this week.
Read more: Brenda Fruhvirtova becomes youngest ITF Champion in six years
