The WTA rankings updated on Monday, November 1, are bringing quite a few changes. While enjoying the first days of her marriage, Jessica Pegula is upgrading her tennis biography with a new career-high ranking of No.20. Former world No.1 Simona Halep is out of the Top 20 for the first time since 2013.
Twenty-year-old Jessica Pegula ended her season due to having a close COVID-19 contact during her wedding on Biltmore Estate, in Asheville, North Carolina. Despite being inactive at the moment, the American can celebrate a major milestone, as she’s cracked the Top 20 for the first time in her career.
Simona Halep, another recently married player, dropped four spots to No.22, despite having played the final of the Transylvania Open over the weekend. The two-time Grand Slam champion has fallen out of the Top 20 for the first time in over eight years.
Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit, who has won four WTA titles in just over two months (Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca) is now a Top 10 player for the first time in her career, having climbed six spots to No.8 in one week. Let’s not forget to mention that Kontaveit has also qualified for the Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara.
Ons Jabeur, whose WTA Finals dream was crushed when Kontaveit raced to the Transylvania Open title on Sunday, is consolidating her position inside the Top 10. With her run to the BNP Paribas semifinals, Jabeur became the first Arab player to move into the Top 10. The Tunisian today reached a new career-high of No.7.
Elina Svitolina and Belinda Bencic both fell eight spots, leaving the Top 10. Svitolina used to be a Top 10 player for 212 consecutive weeks. Because of her decline, top-ranked Ashleigh Barty now owns the longest active streak for consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 — 116 weeks.
Meanwhile, world No.11 Paula Badosa is on the verge of becoming a Top 10 player for the first time.
Former world No.19 Donna Vekic performed the largest leap in the Top 100. After winning the Courmayeur Ladies Open, her first WTA title since 2017 Nottingham, the Croat rose 30 spots, to No.67.
I feel like a lot of these WTA players get married and their career goes down the toilet? Ivanovic, Aga, Cibulkova, Wozniacki, Serena and now Halep.
The only last married player I felt played well on the tour was probably Clijsters.
Ric, it is because players don’t want to get married at the height of their career. Rather, they choose to get married once they decide that it is time for a new chapter, once they have other priorities, etc. So it is not that the marriage caused their decline, rather, they chose to tie the knot at the time they are ready to slowly move away from tennis. That’s my logical explanation.
Actually Rick (sic) Li Na married Jiang Shan (aka) Dennis in 2006 and her tennis career actually got better. But nobody gives a s**t about Chinese players except me. BTW Clijsters is so out of shape and overweight now..why is she trying to make a comeback? From what I have seen of Li on her Weibo account..she is still fit and at the same weight as she was in her playing days. And she has had two children.
Jim, you will be pleased with the article coming up on WTB today 🙂 Clijsters does look overweight, you are right, but why wouldn’t she be making a comeback? OK, she will not reach new heights in her career, that is for sure, but I am glad to see her back.
Marija, I say Kim just retire already. No need to embarrass yourself making a comeback. You had a wonderful career. Just enjoy your family and travel. If you have to get back into tennis, coach somebody or open up a tennis academy in Belgium to help up and coming players.