Ranking Reaction: Ons Jabeur makes Top 15 debut after reaching Chicago final

The last two players standing at the WTA 500 event in Chicago this past week, Garbine Muguruza and Ons Jabeur, both make notable moves up the WTA rankings today, the Spaniard rising from No. 9 to No. 6 and the Tunisian from No. 16 to No. 14.

For Muguruza, it’s her highest ranking since she was No. 3 during Wimbledon in July 2018. She was the defending champion at the All England Club that year, but after falling in the second round, her ranking dropped to No. 7 after the tournament—she dipped to No. 18 by the 2018 year-end rankings and to No. 36 by the 2019 year-end rankings before turning things around at the start of 2020.

Chicago was her ninth career WTA title, and her sixth at the WTA 500 level or higher—she’s won two majors at Roland Garros in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017, as well as three WTA 1000s at Beijing in 2015, Cincinnati in 2017 and Dubai earlier this year.

Jabeur, meanwhile, has now broken into the Top 15 for the first time.

In 2020, the Tunisian became the first Arab woman to reach the Top 50 in WTA rankings history, and she’s gone several levels higher in 2021, making her Top 30 debut in January, her Top 20 debut in August and now her Top 15 debut in October.

And that isn’t the only milestone she’s hit over the last few days—with her four wins to reach the final in Chicago, Jabeur is now 44-17 this season, the most tour-level wins of anyone on the women’s tour this year, surpassing Aryna Sabalenka (who’s 43-15).

Other significant movers on the WTA rankings this week include Maria Sakkari, who inches up from No. 10 to a new career-high of No. 9 after Naomi Osaka drops from No. 7 to No. 12, and Danish teenager Clara Tauson, who rises from No. 52 to No. 49—her Top 50 debut—after Madison Keys, Alison Riske and Katerina Siniakova slide down.

There were no major changes in the Top 20 of the ATP rankings, but there were a few just outside, with Lorenzo Sonego rising from No. 23 to a new career-high of No. 21 after reaching the quarterfinals of San Diego, and Cam Norrie rising from No. 28 to No. 26, also a new high, after reaching his fifth final of the year at the ATP 250 event.

And a little further down there was some good news for American men’s tennis as 21-year-old Sebastian Korda made his Top 40 debut, rising from No. 42 to No. 40 after reaching the second round in San Diego, where he fell to Sonego, 6-4, 6-3.

There are now four American men in the Top 40, with Reilly Opelka and John Isner leading the way at No. 20 and No. 23, then Taylor Fritz and Korda at No. 39 and No. 40.