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It was a week celebrate to celebrate the wondrous throwback that is the game of 37-year-old German Tatjana Maria.
A longtime foot soldier who returned to the game quickly – twice – after having a baby, she wins the biggest title of her career by mowing down a lineup of power hitters on the grass.
She rarely ever wavered with a game style that is uniquely difficult to handle, when it’s executed perfectly.
Zheng Qinwen (CHN): No. 5 ============> No. 4 (The 22-year-old from China has slid into the top four in the world a little under the radar, and without having put up a major result this year. But she’s been fairly consistent, and squeaks past the idle Jasmine Paolini with her semifinal results at Queen’s Club)(Berlin/Elena Rybakina)
Madison Keys (USA): No. 8 ============> No. 6 (Keys was bamboozled by Tatjana Maria’s slice and dice at Queene’s. But she makes the semis and moves up two) (Berlin/Vondrousova).
Amanda Anisimova (USA): No. 15 ============> No. 13 (Already at a career high, Anisimova made the final at Queen’s Club and moves to a new one)(Berlin/[WC] Bianca Andreescu).
Tatjana Maria (GER): No. 86 ============> No. 43 (Maria’s run from the qualifying through to the Queen’s Club title was a wonder in defusing the power hitters. The former No. 42 is back just a few points away from that high-water mark, set at the start of 2024. And she helps her case out a lot for the 1000s this summer)(SE Nottingham/Petra Kvitova).
Elena-Gabriela Ruse (ROU): No. 80 ============> No. 58 (Also a great run for Ruse, who went from the qualifying to the final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch).
Nuria Parrizas Diaz (ESP): No. 104 ============> No. 85 (There’s a whole world still happening on clay at the WTA 125 level this week, and Párrizas Diaz wins the event in Valencia. Too late for straight entry into Wimbledon, but still back into the top 100. She should be the top seed in the qualifying).
Iva Jovic (USA): No. 115 ============> No. 89 (Already at a career high at age 17, Jovic wins the grass-court WTA 125 at Ilkley over Rebecca Marino in the final. And moves into the top 100 for the first time. She will be right behind Parrizas Diaz among the qualifying seeds, and you’d think she has a better chance of getting through).
Mayar Sherif (EGY): No. 108 ============> No. 88 (Sherif, 29, is one of those players who wins a lot of matches at the ITF and WTA 125 level, but can’t quite get it done at the top level. She moves back into the top 100 – her career high was No. 31 in June 2023 – with a title at the ITF in Biarritz).
Anastasia Zakharova (RUS): No. 111 ============> No. 93 (The 23-year-old qualified at Queen’s Club and won a round, to break into the top 100 for the first time).
Rebecca Marino (CAN): No. 107 ============> No. 99 (Just a little too late for Wimbledon, the 34-year-old Canadian gets back into the top 100 with the final at the Ilkley WTA 125. She’s been around that number for a fair while now, but the last time she was inside the top 100 was in early January).
Carson Branstine (CAN): No. 231 ============> No. 196 (A great week for the 24-year-old Can-American, who qualified for her first WTA Tour event at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and defeateed the No. 1 seed and defending champion Liudmila Samsonova in the first round. She back inside the top 200).
Zheng Qinwen (CHN) (No. 4)
Amanda Anisimova (USA) (No. 13)
Iva Jovic (USA) (No. 88)
Anastasia Zakharova (RUS) (No. 93)
Solana Sierra (ARG) (No. 100)
Tereza Valentova (CZE) (No. 120)
Katie Boulter (GBR): No. 34 ============> No. 39 (Boulter had some points to defend, and a second-round loss at Queen’s Club didn’t get that done. She falls behind Emma Raducanu and is now the No. 2 Brit)(Nottingham/Lulu Sun).
Naomi Osaka (JPN): No. 52 ============> No. 57 (Osaka had a few points come off from making the quarterfinals in ‘s-Hertogenbosch a year ago. She didn’t play last week but has a wild card into Berlin this week)(Berlin/Liudmila Samsonova).
Ons Jabeur (TUN): No. 54 ============> No. 61 (Jabeur drops points from a quarterfinal in Nottingham last year, and has quarterfinal points to defend from Berlin as well. And she also found herself in the qualifying in Berlin this week – the first time for qualifying for her since the Hobart tournament before the 2020 Australian Open. She didn’t make it, but squeezed in as a lucky loser. (Berlin/[Q] Caroline Dolehide)
Ann Li (USA): No. 53 ============> No. 65 (Li won the clay-court WTA 125 in Valencia last year, but lost in the second round this year at ‘s-Hertogenbosch).
Robin Montgomery (USA): No. 95 ============> No. 114 (After briefly breaking into the top 100, Montgomery was idle last week and so drops the points she earned from going qualifying to quarers at ‘s-Hertogenbosch a year ago. She is defending a quarter-final effort at a now-defunct grass-court 125 in Gaiba from a year ago, and also a run through the qualifying to the second round at Wimbledon).
Dalma Galfi (HUN): No. 90 ============> No. 115 (Galfi lost in the final round of qualifying at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and so drops the points she earned a year ago from going through qualifying and to the semifinals. With that, she is out of the top 100).
Bianca Andreescu (CAN): No. 118 ============> No. 148 (Andreescu had some points on her tableau from making the ‘s-Hertogenbosch final a year ago, before pulling the plug on her season. But she lost in the quarterfinals to the qualifier Ruse this time, and is just a few points from being out of the top 150. Andreescu will have to play the Wimbledon qualifying, from the look of it – as she did in Paris. She has third-round, main-draw points to defend) (Berlin/Amanda Anisimova)
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