WTA Rankings: Kalinskaya cracks top 20 for first time in her career

The Russian rises to a career-best No 17 in the world, while Tomljanovic also surges after both reached tournament finals last week

Anna Kalinskaya, Berlin 2024 Image Credit: Imago / Panoramic

Jamie Malachy

June 24, 2024

Anna Kalinskaya‘s remarkable breakthrough season continues to reap the rewards in the rankings as the Russian rises another seven places to break into the top 20 for the first time in her career.

After a brilliant run to the semi-finals of the Australian Open at the start of the year, Kalinskaya then knocked out world No 1 Iga Swiatek en route to the final of Dubai the following month.

Last week, she continued her superb first half of the year by reaching the final of the Berlin Open, narrowly losing out to a resurgent Jessica Pegula in that match.

The result of that run, however, has been rewarded by a career-best ranking of No 17 in the world for Kalinskaya as she marches ever upwards towards the very top of her sport. The Russian was ranked as low as 115th in the world just last October before her stratospheric rise this season.

Pegula beats Kalinskaya in the final of the Berlin Open

tomljanovic back on the rise, while swiatek remains uncatchable at the top

Katerina Siniakova is another who enjoys reaching a career-high this week, rising three places from 30th in the world to No 27.

Putintseva has been rewarded for her unexpected title victory at the Birmingham Classic with a seven-place jump to No 34 – a two-year high for the Kazakh. Runner-up Ajla Tomljanovic surges a massive 55 places up to No 135 as she continues her comeback from several lengthy spells out of action over the past 18 months.

With the grass-court season ahead of her, the Australian will be a strong candidate to rack up significant rankings points over the coming weeks. Having missed all of the grass swing last summer, she will have a clean slate from which to accrue points and Tomljanovic is an excellent grass-courter, reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon at the last two editions of the Championships she played.

There were also rises for Leylah Fernandez, Caroline Dolehide and Ana Bondar, who jumped 13 places to crack the top 100 at No 93 in the world.

There was no movement inside the WTA’s top 15, with Swiatek maintaining a iron-clad grip on the top spot, despite having not played a tournament since winning Roland-Garros.

The Pole remains more than 3000 points ahead of Coco Gauff, who sits in second place ahead of Aryna Sabalenka.

While grass is Swiatek’s least favoured surface by some margin, it remains mathematically impossible for her to be overhauled as the world No 1 during the Wimbledon fortnight as her dominance looks set to continue well into the second half of the season and beyond.