Ranking Reaction: Garin breaks into Top 20 following Rio Open victory

Just three weeks after winning the Australian Open and making her Top 10 debut, Sofia Kenin has broken into an even higher ranking class this week, rising from No. 7 to No. 5—her Top 5 debut.

Kenin lost her opening match in Dubai last week to a red-hot Elena Rybakina, but with few points to defend there—as well as some reshuffling among the Top 10—she inched up to a new career-high.

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After her win in Melbourne, Kenin rose from No. 15 to No. 7, becoming the 30th American woman to break into the Top 10 in WTA rankings history. She’s now the 17th U.S. woman to break into the Top 5, and just the fourth U.S. woman to be in the Top 5 since 2010 (after the Williams sisters and Sloane Stephens).

“Before Australia, obviously there was different kinds of pressure, but I did have expectations. I was hard on myself. I want to do well in every tournament, it’s not a surprise,” Kenin told WTATour.com.

“And nothing’s changed from my side, the way I am, because I hate losing. You know I hate losing.”

Kenin’s conqueror in Dubai, Rybakina, also rose two spots to a new career-high this week, going from No. 19 to No. 17 after reaching the final of the Premier event, where she fell to Simona Halep.

The Kazakhstani was ranked No. 193 at this time last year and playing $25,000 ITF Circuit events.

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Kenin wasn’t the only player who benefited from some reshuffling in the rankings to make a career breakthrough this week—Sakkari, who also fell in the first round in Dubai, moved up from No. 21 to No. 20, making her just the third Greek player, male or female, ever to break the Top 20.

The first two Greeks to go this high were Eleni Daniilidou, who broke into the Top 20 on the WTA rankings in 2003 and eventually made it as high as No. 14, and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who made his Top 20 debut in 2018 and has since gone as high as No. 5 in the world—he’s currently No. 6 on the ATP rankings.

Meanwhile, Gauff made her Top 50 debut despite not playing last week, rising from No. 51 to No. 49 after two players—Alison Van Uytvanck and Iga Swiatek—dipped down the rankings.

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Two weeks ago, Garin broke the Top 30 for the first time, rising from No. 31 to No. 26 after winning his first title of the year in Cordoba, Argentina, and this week he makes his Top 20 debut, jumping from No. 25 to No. 18 after capturing his fourth career ATP title in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

And Atilla Balazs and Gianluca Mager, who reached the semifinals and final in Rio, respectively, both made Top 100 debuts—Balazs going from No. 106 to No. 79 and Mager from No. 128 to No. 77.

Meanwhile, a week after falling out of the Top 50 from No. 40 to No. 54 following an early loss in New York, where he was defending the first ATP title of his career, Reilly Opelka bounced right back into the Top 50, jumping from No. 54 to No. 39 after winning his second career ATP title in Delray Beach.

The man Opelka beat for the title, Nishioka, rose from No. 63 to No. 48 after reaching the final of the 250-level event, which wasn’t just his Top 50 debut, it was also a personal milestone: he had set his previous career-high of No. 58 on March 20, 2017, but four days later tore his left ACL and missed the rest of the year, falling as low as No. 380 in 2018. Now he’s finally come full circle.

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While Tsitsipas defended his title in Marseille and stayed at No. 6, the other four players defending titles last week weren’t so lucky: Laslo Djere, who won in Rio a year ago, withdrew from the event this year with an abdominal injury and fell from No. 36 to No. 67; Radu Albot, who won Delray Beach last year, lost first round this year and fell from No. 51 to No. 69; Belinda Bencic, the defending champion in Dubai, fell first round this year and dipped from No. 4 to No. 9; and Alison Van Uytvanck, who won Budapest a year ago, lost in Dubai qualies this year and fell out of the Top 50 from No. 48 to No. 62.