Maria Timofeeva jumps over 100 rankings places after lucky loser heroics

James Richardson 24 Jul 2023 8:07 PM

Maria Timofeeva plays a shot

Maria Timofeeva was the big WTA Rankings winner this week as she jumped 117 places following her Hungarian Grand Prix championship.

Timofeeva had lost in qualifying but got a second chance as a lucky loser and took it with aplomb.

There were no changes in the top 20 this week following the WTA 250 events in Budapest and Palermo and the 125 tournament in Iasi.

In Budapest Timofeeva had lost the final round of qualifying to Anna Siskova but an absent player left the door open for her to make her WTA Tour main draw debut.

She made that debut count becoming just the fourth lucky loser to win a WTA Tour title.

At 19 years, 248 days old, Timofeeva is now the second-youngest titlist this season behind Coco Gauff, who won the Auckland Classic title at 18 years, 301 days old.

The championship run bolsters Timofeeva’s ranking a massive 117 spots as she climbs from No 246 to No 129 in this week’s WTA Rankings.

Zheng Qinwen of China also won her first career singles championship in Palermo last week.

Zheng moves up two positions in the rankings as a result, jumping from No 26 to No 24.

Ana Bogdan moves up ten slots to No 39 in the world after winning the WTA 125 championship in Iasi, Romania, defeating fellow Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu in the final.

Kateryna Baindl, who was runner-up in Budapest, rises 23 rungs on the ladder this week to No 77, her highest position on the WTA Rankings since 2019.

Nadia Podoroska of Argentina, who finished the 2022 season at No 204, is now No 66 after reaching the Budapest semifinals.

Arantxa Rus, who is 32 years old, makes her Top 60 debut this week having twice previously reaching her highest point of No 61 in 2012 and 2021. Dutch player Rus lost in the opening round in Palermo but her main-draw appearance was enough to see her move up two places.

After winning the ITF W100 competition in Granby, Canada, Kayla Day enters the Top 100 this week. Day, an American who was ranked 122nd as a 17-year-old in 2017, improved to No 94 after earning 140 ranking points. She leap up 31 places, the biggest rankings jump among those in the Top 100.

Poland’s Iga Swiatek remains the WTA Tour world No 1 and is not currently under threat of losing that status.