Rankings Winners & Losers: Andreescu into Top 5, Medvedev up to No. 4

Two of the breakthrough stars of the 2019 US Open—Bianca Andreescu, who won the women’s title; and Daniil Medvedev, who made the men’s final—made very notable moves on the new rankings.

After becoming the first Canadian player, male or female, ever to win a Grand Slam title, Andreescu surged from No. 15 to No. 5, making her just the third Canadian ever to break into the Top 5, following Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic—who’ve gone as high as No. 5 and No. 3, respectively.

Not only did Andreescu jump past the player she beat in the final in New York, Serena Williams, she also passed the player she modeled her game after—Simona Halep—who fell from No. 5 to No. 6.

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Having only just broken into the Top 10 for the first time after Wimbledon, Medvedev got up to No. 5 after winning his first Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati two weeks before the US Open, and with his run to the final in Flushing Meadows, he emerged with a brand new career-high ranking of No. 4.

The man he lost to in the final, Rafael Nadal, thinks the Russian can reach even higher heights.

“He’s 23. He’s 23. The year that he’s having is just very impressive,” Nadal said. “He has a great, great future in front. I really believe that he will be able to win Grand Slams, a couple of them, no?

“Let’s see. In this life, it’s impossible to predict the future. But his career looks very, very well.”

Going into the US Open, Grigor Dimitrov was in a slump—the former No. 3 had lost seven of his last eight matches and was down at No. 78, his lowest ranking in more than seven years. But a run to his third Grand Slam semifinal—which included a quarterfinal win over current No. 3 Roger Federer, his biggest career win at a major—he shaved more than two thirds off his ranking, jumping to No. 25.

Meanwhile, fast-rising Italian Matteo Berrettini continued his march towards the Top 10, almost cutting his ranking in half from No. 25 to No. 13 after reaching his first career Grand Slam semifinal.

Dimitrov would eventually fall to Medvedev in the semifinals, while Berrettini was stopped by Nadal.

Other noteworthy moves up the ATP rankings this week included a pair of Top 100 debuts, with Dominik Koepfer of Germany rising from No. 118 to No. 86 after qualifying then going all the way to the fourth round of the US Open, and American Tommy Paul going from No. 114 to No. 92 after winning an ATP Challenger event in New Haven during the second week of the US Open.

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Though her run came to an abrupt end against Serena Williams, Wang Qiang had a career-best run at the US Open, reaching her first Grand Slam quarterfinal—and scoring the best win of her career against then-No. 2 Ashleigh Barty in the fourth round. She rose from No. 18 to a new high of No. 12 this week, making her the second-highest-ranked Chinese player after Li Na, who peaked at No. 2.

Barty’s run to the fourth round was enough to push the Australian back to No. 1, though, with Naomi Osaka dipping from No. 1 to No. 4 after falling in the fourth round of her US Open title defense.

The woman who took Osaka out, Belinda Bencic, made her Top 10 return, rising from No. 12 to No. 10 after reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal in Flushing Meadows. It’s the Swiss’ 20th career week inside the Top 10, the first 19 coming consecutively between February and June, 2016.

And American Kristie Ahn made her Top 100 debut, soaring from No. 141 to No. 93 after reaching the fourth round as a wildcard. She’d never even won a Grand Slam main draw match beforehand.

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There were some significant drops down the rankings, too, with Juan Martin del Potro—a finalist at the US Open last year—falling from No. 16 to No. 71 after having to miss out on this year’s event due to a knee injury. Lesia Tsurenko, who reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in New York last year, dropped from No. 40 to No. 68 this week after having to sit it out this year with an elbow injury.

And Maria Sharapova slipped from No. 87 to No. 135 after falling to Serena Williams in the first round in one of the unluckiest draws in recent memory. The Russian had reached the fourth round last year.