Rankings Winners & Losers: Tsitsipas hits Top 5; Kyrgios, Zheng surge

Already the first Greek player ever to reach the Top 10, male or female, Stefanos Tsitsipas made even more history on the new ATP rankings as he reached the Top 5 for the first time in his career.

Playing in his first tournament since falling first round at Wimbledon, Tsitsipas advanced to the semifinals of the Citi Open in Washington D.C. this past week, and was a point away from the final. He held a match point against Nick Kyrgios but succumbed to the Australian, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7).

Nevertheless, he moves from No. 6 to No. 5 this week to make his Top 5 debut.

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Kyrgios would go on to beat another Top 10 player, Daniil Medvedev, for the equal-biggest title of his career at the ATP 500-level event. He nearly halved his ranking this week, surging from No. 52 to No. 27, his first time in the Top 30 since last October. He reached a career-high of No. 13 back in 2016.

“This week means a lot,” he said. “Obviously it’s great to get the win. I’ve proved to myself, and to a lot of people who were backing me, that I still have it, and I can still produce at the highest level.”

With only 100 points to defend before the US Open and back-to-back Masters 1000s coming up in Montreal and Cincinnati, the Australian has positioned himself well to get a seed in Flushing Meadows this year. He hasn’t been seeded at a Slam since he was the No. 30 seed at last year’s US Open.

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There were a few more significant moves up the ATP rankings: Taylor Fritz rose from No. 28 to No. 25, his Top 25 debut, after reaching his second final in as many weeks at Los Cabos; former No. 17 Albert Ramos-Vinolas rose from No. 69 to No. 52 after reaching the final of Kitzbuhel, a week after going from No. 85 to No. 69 following his Gstaad triumph; and South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon made his Top 100 debut thanks to reaching his first ATP quarterfinal in Los Cabos, jumping from No. 112 to No. 97.

Peter Gojowczyk, who got into the main draw of Washington as a lucky loser and ended up making it all the way to the semifinals before falling to Medvedev, surged back into the Top 100 this week. The German climbed 37 spots from No. 122 to No. 85. He got to a career-high of No. 39 in 2018.

There were a few drops, too: Alex De Minaur, a finalist in Washington last year, fell from No. 25 to No. 38 after losing his opening match this year; Andrey Rublev, a D.C. semifinalist last year, fell from No. 49 to No. 70 after falling first round this year; and Martin Klizan, who won Kitzbuhel a year ago, dropped from No. 60 to No. 80 after failing to win a match in his title defense at the clay-court event.

On the WTA rankings, China’s Zheng Saisai rose from No. 55 to No. 38, a return to her career-high, after winning her first WTA title at the Premier event in San Jose. American Jessica Pegula rose from No. 79 to a new career-high of No. 55, having captured her first WTA title in Washington D.C.

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Elsewhere, Spanish up-and-comer Paula Badosa made her Top 100 debut after reaching the last four of the WTA 125K Series event in Karlsruhe, Germany, rising from No. 101 to No. 90. On the flip side, Mihaela Buzarnescu, who was ranked in the Top 20 at this point last year, plummeted from No. 58 to No. 127 after falling in the first round of her title defense in San Jose. The Romanian suffered an ankle injury just days after winning the Premier event last year and has struggled to regain her momentum ever since.