Ranking Reaction: Title winners Hurkacz, Zheng and Fernandez make big ranking jumps

There were four tour-level events last week—one ATP event in Shanghai and three WTA events in Zhengzhou, Hong Kong and Seoul—and for three of the winners, their titles have given them some very notable bumps up the rankings this week.

Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz rises from No. 17 to No. 11 on the ATP rankings after capturing the second Masters 1000 title of his career in Shanghai, his first coming at Miami in 2021. It’s his highest ranking in more than six months, since he was No. 9—his career-high—during the two weeks of Miami earlier this year.

China’s Zheng Qinwen moves from No. 24 back to her career-high of No. 19 after capturing the biggest title of her career at the WTA 500 event in Zhengzhou. She’s actually just the third Chinese player to win a title at the WTA 500 level or higher, after Li Na (who won two Grand Slam titles, one WTA 1000 and one WTA 500) and Zheng Saisai (who won one WTA 500 at San Jose in 2019).

And Leylah Fernandez soars from No. 60 to No. 43 after winning the third WTA title of her career in Hong Kong, her first two WTA titles both coming in Monterrey, Mexico in 2021 and 2022. It’s her first time in the Top 50 since she was No. 49 at Roland Garros this year. She was defending quarterfinal points there, and after falling in the second round she fell to No. 95—then to No. 96 a week later. But she’s been climbing back ever since then, and now bursts back into the Top 50. The Canadian has been ranked as high as No. 13.

The other title winner from last week, Jessica Pegula, who won her fourth career WTA title in Seoul, stays at No. 4.

A little further down on the ATP rankings, Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis—who reached the second round in Shanghai before running into eventual champion Hurkacz—makes a small but very significant move from No. 69 to a new career-high of No. 68.

Kokkinakis set his previous career-high of No. 69 as a 19-year-old in 2015. Since then he's had all kinds of things thrown at him—he underwent shoulder surgery later that year, dropped off the rankings for nine months between 2016 and 2017, and even missed the entire 2020 season due to mono, among other injuries. But he got back to No. 69 last July and has been hovering in and around the Top 100 since then, and today sets a brand new personal best.

A few other notable moves: Andrey Rublev rises from No. 7 to No. 5, his previous career-high, after reaching the final in Shanghai; Italy’s Jasmine Paolini inches from No. 31 to No. 30, her Top 30 debut, after reaching the semis in Zhengzhou; French teenager Arthur Fils rises from No. 44 to No. 38, his Top 40 debut, after a third-round run in Shanghai; and Fabian Marozsan soars from No. 91 to a new best of No. 65 after a quarterfinal run in Shanghai.

Marozsan was actually the first Hungarian ever to reach the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 event, since they began in 1990.