WTA rankings: Ostapenko on the cusp of top 10 after winning second title of 2024

The WTA Tour is racing along at breakneck speed in 2024, going straight from the Australian Open in late January to a WTA 500 event in Austria last week. We look at the impact this non-stop action has had on the WTA rankings this week.

Most of the Tour took the week off, but for some it was an opportunity to make up for disappointment in Melbourne. Jelena Ostapenko took that chance with two hands, winning her second title of the year and shooting back to the cusp on the top 10.

Read on for more WTA ranking updates off the back of the 2024 Upper Austria Ladies Linz.

Ostapenko becomes first to win two in 2024

Latvian Ostapenko has risen to No 11 in the WTA rankings this week off the back of her title in Linz last week.

After winning the WTA 500 in Adelaide to start her season, this is the 26-year-old’s second title of the season. Typically an erratic player, Ostapenko now becomes the first woman to win two titles on the WTA Tour in 2024. 

However, a third round exit at the Australian Open between titles means that her two WTA 500 successes aren’t enough to see her return to the world’s top 10. The Latvian has previously been as high as No 5 in the world, first reaching that ranking in 2018.

After a slow start to the Linz Open that saw Ostapenko lose her opening set of the tournament to Dane Clara Tauson, she was dominant for the remainder of the event, dropping no further sets. Jodie Burrage, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Ekaterina Alexandrova all fell in her wake, with Ostapenko only dropping 13 games across the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

Burel cracks top 50 for the first time, Vekic returns to top 30

Other performers at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz also saw boosts to their WTA rankings this Monday.

Frenchwoman Clara Burel leapt to a career-high ranking of No 44 in the world, making the top 50 for the first time in her career. The 22-year-old made the quarter-finals in Linz, losing to Donna Vekic. 

Vekic also saw an increase in her standing, with the Croatian making the Linz Open semi-finals and moving to No 28 in the WTA rankings as a result. The 27-year-old has previously been as high as No 19 in the world, first making the top 20 over four years ago.

Linz finalist Alexandrova returns to the top 20 as well, rising to No 19 in the world after defeating Jule Niemeier, Anastasia Potapova and Donna Vekic en route to the final in Austria. Great Britain’s Katie Boulter also moved to No 48 in the world, while Diana Shnaider jumped 35 places to No 73 in the world after winning her maiden title in Thailand over the weekend.

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