January 31st Rankings - Women

Unlike the men, there are huge changes for the ladies. This starts at the top, as former #1 Serena Williams fell beneath the 25 match threshold for ranking, allowing the #2 and AO champ, Kim Clijsters, to move up. Another playing dropping back was Justine Henin, who was injured and forced to retire for the second time. She'll stay in my rankings for now, but falls to 5th. this allows a group of players to move up, as Venus Williams becomes 2nd, Caroline Wozniacki 3rd and Ver Zvoanreva 4th. Also moving up was Maria Sharapova, who got ahead of Na Li for 7th. Li made the final this year, but it wasn't enough of an improvement over last year's semi to help her raning. Francesca Schiavone, who gutted out a spectacular win over Svetlana Kuznetsova in the tournament's best match, moves up into 10th.

Winners:


Australian Open
#3 Kim Clijsters BEL (1)
1st round Dinara Safina RUS (62) | 6-0 6-0
2nd round Carla Suarez Navarro ESP (59) | 6-1 6-3
3rd round Alize Cornet FRA (80) | 7-6(3) 6-3
4th round Ekaterina Makarova RUS (35) | 7-6(3) 6-2
Quarters #12 Agnieszka Radwanska POL (13) | 6-3 7-6(4)
Semis #2 Vera Zvonareva RUS (4) | 6-3 6-3
Final #9 Na Li CHN (8) | 3-6 6-3 6-3
Average Opponent Rank 43.5

Clijsters was generally considered the favourite, and made the best of that position, winning seven matches with relatively little fuss. She didn't drop a set heading to the final, though she was forced to a few tiebreakers, and survived losing the first to Li to claim the title.



ITF events:

25K
Andrezieux-Boutheon: #2 Mona Barthel GER (168) d. Stephanie Vogt LIE (200)
Lutz: #2 Laura Siegemund GER (215) d. Jessica Pegula USA (n/a)
Muzaffarnagar: #2 Tadeja Majeric SLO (313) d. Saisai Zheng CHN (184)
Grenoble: Marta Domachowska POL (170) d. Naomi Broady GBR (316)

10K
Stuttgart-Stammheim: Jana Cepelova SVK (212)
Tallinn: Michaela Honcova SVK (281)
Wrexham: Anna Fitzpatrick GBR (369)
Bucaramanga: Aleksandrina Naydenova BUL (n/a)
Kaarst: Sarah Gronert GER (301)
Kolkata: Mari Tanaka JPN (477)
Tallinn: Anett Kontaveit EST (n/a)

Riser of the Week (top 100):
Agnieszka Radwanska POL (13), Up 7
At one point, Radwanska was questionable as to whether she would even play the Australian Open, and when she was down in the third set against Kimiko Date-Krumm (50) in the first round, it seemed like her ranking could be going the other way. But, she bounced back in that match, then beat Petra Martic (93), Simona Halep (53) and Shuai Peng (21) to make the quarterfinals, where she lost to the eventual champ, Clijsters.

Riser of the Week (other):
Jana Cepelova SVK (212), Up 57
Not yet 18 years old, young Cepelova could be a name to watch over the next few years. She didn't head down under, due to her low WTA ranking (outside the top 400), but she played at an ITF event in Stuttgart, where she won handily, getting wins over Michaela Pochabova (275) and Nina Zander (370)

Dropper of the Week (top 100):
Nadia Petrova RUS (23), Down 10
A couple of major contenders for this one, but Petrova comes up with the dubious honour, after dropping a great result from last year. Petrova made the quarters in Melbourne in 2010, picking up some big wins over Kim Clijsters (1) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (18). This year, she got a couple of wins, before falling to Ekaterina Makarova (35), 6-8 in the third.

Dropper of the Week (other):
Yvonne Meusburger AUT (141), Down 27
Meusburger, who is inactive so far in 2011, presumably due to injury, qualified for the main draw of last year's AO, and then won a round in the MD. Without those points, whe takes a small fall in the top 100.


1 (2). Kim Clijsters BEL - 848.1
Last week: Australian Open W

2 (4). Venus Williams USA - 814.0
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Petkovic)

3 (5). Caroline Wozniacki DEN - 812.8
Last week: Australian Open SF (l. Li)

4 (6). Vera Zvonareva RUS - 810.4
Last week: Australian Open SF (l. Clijsters)

5 (3). Justine Henin BEL - 810.0
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Kuznetsova)

6 (7). Samantha Stosur AUS - 794.8
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Kvitova)

7 (9). Maria Sharapova RUS - 786.5
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Petkovic)

8 (8). Na Li CHN - 783.0
Last week: Australian Open F (l. Clijsters)

9 (10). Elena Dementieva RUS - 783.0
Last week: None

10 (12). Francesca Schiavone ITA - 780.1
Last week: Australian Open QF (l. Wozniacki)

11 (11). Shahar Peer ISR - 778.1
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Pennetta)

12 (15). Flavia Pennetta ITA - 777.8
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Kvitova)

13 (20). Agnieszka Radwanska POL - 777.6
Last week: Australian Open QF (l. Clijsters)

14 (14). Victoria Azarenka BLR - 774.4
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Li)

15 (18). Jelena Jankovic SRB - 772.5
Last week: Australian Open R64 (l Peng)

16 (17). Kaia Kanepi EST - 772.2
Last week: Australian Open R64 (l. Goerges)

17 (16). Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS - 771.3
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Benesova)

18 (19). Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS - 770.9
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Schiavone)

19 (26). Petra Kvitova CZE - 768.7
Last week: Australian Open QF (l. Zvonareva)

20 (22). Ana Ivanovic SRB - 768.7
Last week: Australian Open R128 (l. Makarova)

21 (32). Shuai Peng CHN - 764.3
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Radwanska)

22 (30). Andrea Petkovic GER - 764.1
Last week: Australian Open QF (l. Li)

23 (13). Nadia Petrova RUS - 762.9
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Makarova)

24 (21). Yanina Wickmayer BEL - 760.5
Last week: Australian Open R64 (l. Sevastova)

25 (25). Dominika Cibulkova SVK - 759.2
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Wozniacki)

In: Petra Kvitova, Shuai Peng, Andrea Petkovic, Dominika Cibulkova
Out: Serena Williams, Maria Kirilenko, Daniela Hantuchova, Alisa Kleybanova