Rankings Watch: Kessler cracks Top 50; Keys, Joint move up

The second week of the 2025 Hologic WTA Tour season culminated in a pair of American champions: Madison Keys

View Profile at the Adelaide WTA 500 and McCartney Kessler at the Hobart WTA 250. Both are among the players boosted in this week's edition of the PIF WTA Rankings.

Kessler, 25, cracks the Top 50 for the first time after collecting her second WTA title, jumping 20 places from No.67 to No.47. Since graduating from the University of Florida in 2022, Kessler's upward trajectory has been rapid and mostly unbroken. She cut her year-end ranking from No.948 to No.231 in 2023, and then to No.68 last year -- a season which she started by making her WTA main-draw debut in Auckland and included her first title, in Cleveland.

Keys, who was last ranked at her career high of No.7 in October 2016, picked up her ninth title and second in Adelaide, where she won the WTA 250 event in 2022. The 29-year-old climbs six spots from No.20 to No.14, her highest ranking since August.

Joint, Jones shine on home soil

Buoyed by home support, two promising Australian teenagers made a splash last week. Maya Joint

View Profile , 18, reached the first WTA semifinal of her career in Hobart, dropping just 11 games combined against Olga Danilovic

View Profile , Magda Linette

View Profile and Sofia Kenin

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Joint, who left the University of Texas to turn pro last month, has been blazing a trail up the rankings for the past 14 months. In October 2023, she was ranked No.1371; a 62-28 record in 2024 included qualifying for her first Grand Slam main draw at the US Open and a run to her first WTA 125 final in Warsaw. Joint's Hobart run saw her knock off another milestone -- a first Top 50 win after she knocked off Linette.

Junior No.1 Jones, last year's Australian Open and Wimbledon girls' finalist, also scored her first Top 50 win with a 6-4, 6-0 rout of Wang Xinyu in Adelaide. The 16-year-old also impressed in her first meeting with a Top 10 player, winning the first 10 points of the match before falling 7-5, 6-3 Daria Kasatkina

View Profile in the second round. Jones rockets up 78 places to enter the Top 300 for the first time at No.293.

Other notable rankings movements

Jessica Pegula

View Profile , +1 to No.6: Pegula reached her 15th career final, and first since the US Open, in Adelaide, and she is the highest-ranked player to move in this week's rankings.

Karolina Muchova

View Profile , +1 to No.20: Though inactive last week, Muchova returns to the Top 20 for the first time since May due to Jelena Ostapenko

View Profile 's points from Adelaide 2024 falling off.

Liudmila Samsonova

View Profile , +5 to No.21: Adelaide semifinalist Samsonova scored her first Top 10 win since Beijing 2023 by taking out Emma Navarro

View Profile in the quarterfinals.

Yulia Putintseva

View Profile , +2 to No.23: Last week, Putintseva exceeded a career high that she had first set in 2017. Just a week later, the Kazakhstani has set another career high after reaching the Adelaide semifinals.

Yao Xinxin, +56 to No.205: The 21-year-old Chinese player captured the biggest title of her career to date at last week's Nonthaburi ITF W75 and jumps to a new career high. Yao had lost 10 of her 11 previous pro finals.

Joanna Garland

View Profile , +35 to No.284: Garland, 23, has won 39 of her past 40 matches. The Chinese Taipei player was sidelined due to injury for much of the first half of 2024, but put together a 29-match winning streak between October and December, encompassing five straight ITF titles. Garland lost her last final of 2024 in Sharm el Sheikh to Anastasia Gasanova

View Profile , but has resumed winning ways with two consecutive Nairobi ITF W35 titles in 2025. Having reached her career high of No.222 in March 2023, Garland returns to the Top 300 this week.

Belinda Bencic

View Profile , +127 to No.294: Former No.4 Bencic's return from maternity leave took another step forward after she reached the second round of Adelaide last week.