With just one week remaining until the WTA Finals in Singapore, the women's Asian swing wrapped up last week in Tianjin, China and Osaka, Japan while simultaneously moving to Europe for the Generali Ladies Linz in Austria. American Alison Riske claimed her first career title in the Chinese city, defeating Belinda Bencic in the final. As a result, Riske moves up nearly 20 spots in the rankings this week from No. 62 to No. 44; she now sits just four places behind the career-high ranking of No. 40 that she reached in June.
Karolina Pliskova, one half of the Czech twin duo, continues her rise up the rankings following her title in Linz. Pliskova saved a match point to beat Camila Giorgi in the final and the Czech rises three spots this week from No. 30 to No. 27. Good things come in threes, as Giorgi also rises three spots from No. 42 to No. 39 and Zarina Diyas, who fell to Sam Stosur in her first WTA final in Osaka, moves up from No. 37 to No. 34. All three players have put themselves in pole position for, or to fight for, an Australian Open seeding next year.
On the men's side, Roger Federer returns to No. 2 in the ATP World Tour rankings following his title at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai. He and Rafael Nadal switch places. Gilles Simon, beaten by Federer in Shanghai, outperforms the Swiss in his rankings jump. The Frenchman moves up 11 spots to No. 18 in the world, while semifinalist Feliciano Lopez and quarterfinalists Mikhail Youzhny and Julien Benneteau also enjoy ranking jumps. Lopez moves up seven spots to No. 14, while Youzhny and Benneteau rise eight and four spots to Nos. 27 and 26, respectively.
With Juan Martin del Potro dropping 10 spots in the world rankings this week due to his continuning inactivity, there is a change in the Argentinian world ranks. Leonardo Mayer stays static at No. 25 in the world, but becomes the Argentine No. 1. This marks the first change in the Argentinian pecking order on the ATP since June of 2011.
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