Last week, two first-time champions on the Hologic WTA Tour were crowned. In Monterrey, 19-year-old Linda Noskova won the WTA 500 event, while McCartney Kessler walked away with the Cleveland 250 event as a wild card.
Noskova had lost both of her previous WTA finals, at Adelaide 1 and Prague in 2023, but delivered a clutch performance to win Monterrey without dropping a set (including tight victories in all three tiebreaks she contested). The Czech teenager started 2024 with a statement win over Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open en route to the quarterfinal. But a few months later, she suffered personal tragedy when her mother, Ivana, died of cancer ahead of Wimbledon.
Noskova’s victory in Monterrey boosts her 10 places to a new career high of No.25.
University of Florida graduate Kessler had won only one tour-level match prior to Cleveland, which was only the seventh main draw of her career. But the 25-year-old American battled through four three-setters in five matches, including her first three Top 50 wins (over Wang Xinyu, Anastasia Potapova and Beatriz Haddad Maia). This time last year, Kessler was ranked No.365. She made her Top 100 debut two weeks ago after winning the Landisville ITF W100 and is now up another 35 spots to a new career high of No.63.
Sun makes Top 50 debut
Monterrey runner-up Lulu Sun also continued an impressive breakthrough season to hit a new milestone. The Wimbledon quarterfinalist sustained her momentum to reach her first career WTA final. She climbs 16 places to make her Top 50 debut at No.41. Sun becomes the first New Zealander to be ranked inside the Top 50 since Marina Erakovic in February 2014 and just the third in the history of the PIF WTA Rankings following Erakovic and Belinda Cordwell.
Other notable rankings movements
Emma Navarro, +1 to No.12: Navarro reached her sixth tour-level semifinal of 2024 in Monterrey and climbs to a new career high. The American’s season record is now 46-20 (40-19 in main draws).
Erika Andreeva, +14 to No.75: The 20-year-old sister of Roland Garros semifinalist Mirra Andreeva, Erika captured her own headlines in Monterrey after upsetting No.1 seed Danielle Collins in the second round to notch her first career Top 20 win. The result also put Erika into her first WTA quarterfinal and lifts her to a new career high.
Ana Bogdan, +12 to No.91: Between reaching the Cluj-Napoca final in February and last week, Bogdan won consecutive matches only once. By the end of July,…