Rankings Winners & Losers: Fritz, Opelka reach new heights on ATP tour

Two of America’s best young players have made rankings breakthroughs after deep runs in Atlanta, with Taylor Fritz setting a new career-high standing and Reilly Opelka making his Top 50 debut.

Fritz, who made it to the final of the BB&T Atlanta Open before falling to Australia's Alex De Minaur, 6-3, 7-6 (2), rose from No. 32 to No. 28, surpassing his previous career-high ranking of No. 30.

“To get to two finals in a month really shows that my level has gone up and that the first time wasn’t a fluke,” said Fritz, who won the first ATP title of his career in Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon.

“It hurts so much to lose a final, but I’m still confident and will keep moving forward.”

Opelka, who served 28 aces during a  7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 6-3 semifinal loss to de Minaur the day before, soared from No. 57 to No. 43 in the new rankings. His previous career-high was No. 53.

The Aussie, meanwhile, made a big jump of his own, rising from No. 34 to No. 25—just one spot off his career-high of No. 24 from earlier this year.

“To start the year with a bang and then be slowed down by injuries, you expect your level to be right there once you come back, but you have to slowly grind your way back,” de Minaur said. “I’ve been playing great tennis and felt like if I could keep it all together, the good results will come.”

“To get to two finals in a month really shows that my level has gone up,"* said Fritz. (Getty Images)*

The winner of the other 250-level event of the week, in Gstaad, former Top 20 player Albert Ramos-Vinolas, moved up from No. 85 to No. 69.

Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili, who won the biggest tournament of the week in Hamburg, stayed exactly where he was at No. 16—but as the defending champion at the 500-level event, he could have dropped out of the Top 25 had he lost early. Russia’s Andrey Rublev soared from No. 78 to No. 49 after reaching the Hamburg final, his first time in the Top 50 since last year’s US Open. It was the biggest final of his career so far.

“It was a good week for me,” the former No. 31 said. “For the moment, my best week.”

There were two significant drops out of the Top 50 on the men’s rankings, with Nicolas Jarry falling 17 spots from No. 38 to No. 55 and Leonardo Mayer falling 30 spots from No. 51 to No. 81. Jarry made the semifinals of Hamburg last year, and Mayer the final—but they both fell in the first round this year.

The biggest move in the Top 100 of the WTA rankings went to 22-year-old Swiss Jil Teichmann, who surged from No. 82 to No. 54 after winning her second title of the year in Palermo. She beat No. 5 Kiki Bertens in the final, her first win over a Top 30 player.

Anastasija Sevastova won the other WTA event of the week on home soil, in Jurmala, Latvia. Though she stayed at No. 11, she’s now just a handful of ranking points away from her Top 10 debut—current No. 10 Aryna Sabalenka has 3,365 ranking points, while Sevastova has 3,356 ranking points.