Two of the sport's brightest young stars have made a big jump in this week's WTA rankings. Qinwen Zheng gave the home fans a lot to cheer for after her triumph at the Zhengzhou Open in her native China.
Zheng rallied from a set down to defeat 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova in the final. The 21-year old has now claimed the biggest title of her career so far, just a few days after her birthday as well.
Zheng had recently gone through some tough times after her former coach Wim Fissette left her for Naomi Osaka. It wasn't an amicable split, but the Chinese youngster is back on track based on her results. She has jumped five spots to No. 19 in this week's WTA rankings, matching her career high.
Leylah Fernandez captured her third career title at the Hong Kong Open over the weekend. She survived a tough challenge from Katerina Siniakova in the final to win the match in three sets.
A year of mostly poor results saw Fernandez's ranking plummet all the way down to No. 96. However, there's no way to go but up after reaching the bottom and the Canadian did the same.
Fernandez's ranking got a boost after a quarterfinal finish at the Guadalajara Open last month. Her title-winning run in Hong Kong has now pushed her up by 17 spots to No. 43 this week.
Jasmine Paolini and Mirra Andreeva each moved by a spot to No. 30 and No. 49 respectively to reach a new career high. Other big movers this week include Siniakova, who jumped 25 places to No. 60 and Laura Siegemund, who's back into the top 100 after climbing 22 spots to No. 91.
Aryna Sabalenka leads the WTA rankings for the sixth week
There's no shake-up in the top 10 of the WTA rankings this week, which remain the same as last week. However, players have still dropped a few points despite not switching positions.
Aryna Sabalenka remains firmly atop the summit with 9381 points, followed by Iga Swiatek at 8545 points. The two will battle it out at the WTA Finals for the year-end No. 1 spot.
Swiatek will need to win the title while hoping for Sabalenka to crash out in the group stage itself. The former reached the semifinals last year after making it through the round-robin stage undefeated, while the latter finished as the runner-up.
To view this week's WTA rankings, click here.