On the back of a semifinal showing in Rome, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov rose to a career-high ranking of No. 12 in the ATP rankings this week. Dimitrov upset Tomas Berdych en route to his first Masters 1000 semifinal in Rome, where he fell to Rafael Nadal. In a week of breakthroughs in Rome, Jeremy Chardy rose seven spots to No. 40 after upsetting Roger Federer en route to his third career Masters 1000 quarterfinal. The Frenchman continues to show flashes of the form that brought him to No. 25 last season.
Chardy's countryman Benoit Paire missed Rome due to an injury, and fell 28 spots in the rankings to No. 63 after failing to defend a semifinal showing from 2013. Paire has struggled with his knee for most of this season, and will come into his home slam short of match play with a third round showing to defend. In other slides, former world No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko fell eight spots down to No. 100 for first time since October 2001. Davydenko has not won a match since Indian Wells.
On the women's side, Simona Halep rose to No. 4 in the world rankings despite only playing one match in Rome. With Victoria Azarenka still suffering from injury and unable to defend her runner-up showing from a year ago, Halep recorded a 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 win over Madison Keys in the first round before withdrawing due to an abdominal injury. With her top 4 ranking, Halep will anchor her own quarter of the draw at Roland Garros.
On the back of a breakthrough tournament, Zhang Shuai rises nine spots in the rankings to a career-high of No. 34, and passes countrywoman Peng Shuai to become the No. 2 ranked player from China behind Li Na. Zhang recorded her second career top 10 win over Petra Kvitova in the second round of Rome, and made it all the way to the quarterfinals before falling to Serena Williams.
After a year in which she was plagued by mononucleosis, Great Britain's Heather Watson returned to the top 100 this week on the back of a win at the Sparta Prague Open, a $100,000 event on the ITF Circuit. Watson, unseeded, upset No. 2 seed Klara Koukalova in the first round, before snapping the nine-match winning streak of Anna Schmiedlova in the final.