By Chris Oddo | Monday October 8, 2018
Naomi Osaka makes her Top 5 debut on Monday, with the Japanese star coming in at No.4 in the WTA rankings after a semifinal performance at the China Open in Beijing.
Osaka joins legendary Kimiko Date-Krumm as one of two Japanese women to have cracked the Top 5. Date-Krumm, who topped out at No.4 in the world, was inside the Top 5 for 11 weeks in 1995.
Osaka, who ranks seventh on the WTA Tour in first-serve points won with 69.5 percent and 10th on the WTA Tour in wins with 36, began the year at No.68 in the world.
She’s not the only player to crack a rankings milestone this week. Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens reaches the Top 10 for the first time in her career to become the first woman for her country to hold a Top 10 ranking since Brenda Schultz-McCarthy in 1996. Bertens, the Cincinnati and Seoul champion, leads the WTA Tour in Top 10 wins with ten in 2018.
Other notable rankings risers on the WTA Tour are Aryna Sabalenka, who rose from 16 to 11 on the strength of her quarterfinal in Beijing, Anastasija Sevastova, who rises to a career-high ranking of No.12 in the world as a result of her final appearance in Beijing and China’s Wang Qiang, who climbs from 28 to 24 after reaching her first Premier Mandatory semifinal at the China Open.