Rankings Watch: Rybakina, Joint shine ahead of Roland Garros

Elena Rybakina returned to the winner’s circle for the first time in over a year, while 19-year-old Maya Joint captured her first WTA title -- all as players sharpened form and rankings in time for the French Open.

Last week on the Hologic WTA Tour, one familiar champion ended a title drought while another captured her first career trophy, all as players made their final preparations for Roland Garros.

Elena Rybakina captured her ninth career title at the WTA 500 event in Strasbourg, her first tournament win since Stuttgart in April 2024. The victory lifts her one spot in the PIF WTA Rankings, up to No. 11.

In Rabat, 19-year-old Maya Joint made a statement of her own. The Australian powered to her first title at the WTA 250 event, winning all five matches in straight sets and conceding just 22 games all week. It was only her 11th WTA main-draw appearance.

Joint began 2024 ranked No. 684 and has climbed rapidly since. She went 62-28 last year, reached her first WTA 125 final in Warsaw and made her tour-level debut at the US Open, reaching the second round as a qualifier. She cracked the Top 100 in early March and now rises another 24 places, from No. 78 to a career-high No. 53.

Jeanjean breaks Top 100 for first time, Parry returns

In the week before Roland Garros, France has tripled its number of Top 100 players from one to three. Former No. 48 Diane Parry, who slipped out of the Top 100 in March after an injury-struck start to her season, upset Leylah Fernandez to reach the second round of Strasbourg. Parry is back up 12 places from No. 105 to No. 93.

Meanwhile, there's a long-awaited milestone for 29-year-old Leolia Jeanjean, who inches up three places to make her Top 100 debut at No. 100 despite being inactive last week. After a successful college tennis career -- in which Jeanjean also earned three degrees from Baylor University, the University of Arkansas and Lynn University -- she made waves on her tour-level debut by upsetting Karolina Pliskova at Roland Garros 2022.

Jeanjean broke into the Top 200 after her 2022 Roland Garros breakthrough and, aside from one week, has stayed there ever since, peaking at No. 102 in January 2023. The past seven months, though, have marked the most consistent stretch of her career.

At the end of last season, she won back-to-back ITF titles on home soil before closing her season by reaching the Florianopolis WTA 125 semifinals. This year, Jeanjean added three more ITF finals, another WTA 125 semifinal run in Saint-Malo and her first tour-level quarterfinal in Bogota.

Other notable rankings movements

Liudmila Samsonova, +1 to No. 18: Samsonova reached her ninth career final, and first on clay, last week in Strasbourg. The 26-year-old has now made WTA finals on every surface.

Camila Osorio, +4 to No. 51: Bogota champion Osorio made her second semifinal of the season in Rabat and is up to her highest ranking since April 2022.

Jaqueline Cristian, +14 to No. 60: Cristian reached her second career final (following Linz 2021) in Rabat last week. The Romanian is now just three spots below her career high of No. 57.

Bianca Andreescu, +3 to No. 99: Former US Open champion Andreescu fell in Roland Garros qualifying last week but returns to the Top 100 for the first time since January 2024.

Alina Charaeva, +35 to No. 207: The 2020 Roland Garros junior finalist captured her first ITF W75 title last week in Kursumlijska Banja, Serbia. The 22-year-old hit her career high of No. 197 last November.

Maria Mateas, +30 to No. 216: The 25-year-old American reached her first career WTA quarterfinal in Rabat, a run that also included her first Top 100 win over Arantxa Rus. Mateas made her WTA main-draw debut at Stanford 2016 but had not won a match at that level until last week.

Oleksandra Oliynykova, +18 to No. 217: The 24-year-old Ukrainian has won 16 of her past 17 matches since April, collecting two ITF W35 titles in Santa Margherita di Pula and, last week, her first ITF W50 in Portoroz. Oliynykova climbs to a new career high.

Jazmin Ortenzi, +40 to No. 228: The 23-year-old Argentinian put together an eight-match winning streak over the past two weeks encompassing the Bastad ITF W35 title and Portoroz ITF W50 semifinals.

Sada Nahimana, +34 to No. 233: Nahimana made national history last week in Rabat, qualifying and then becoming the first player from Burundi to win a match in a WTA main draw. The 24-year-old rises to a new career high this week.

Teodora Kostovic, +117 to No. 395: The Junior No. 7, Kostovic qualified for her first WTA main draw in Madrid last month and continued to make waves at pro level by reaching the Kursumlijska Banja ITF W75 final last week. The 17-year-old Serb enters the Top 400 for the first time.

Anastasija Sevastova, +137 to No. 406: Former No. 11 Sevastova reached the quarterfinals of her first two tour-level events back from maternity leave at the start of 2024, before an ACL injury sidelined her for over a year. But last week in Rabat, in the fourth tournament since coming back, the 35-year-old Latvian added another WTA quarterfinal.

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