Ranking the Top 10 Women's Players After the 2015 Australian Open
Serena Williams captured her sixth Australian Open title and 19th Grand Slam title. The win puts her within three Slams of Steffi Graf. It also cements her spot as the No. 1 player in the world.
Williams' 6-3, 7-6 win over Maria Sharapova capped a topsy-turvy two weeks in Melbourne. The tournament began with the No. 1 ranking on the line. Williams held onto her top ranking when she won her semifinal match.
Still, Sharapova could have cast away a decade-long demon with a win in the final.
However, Williams stood in the way. She defeated Sharapova for the 16th straight time. Williams, battling a nagging cold all week, proved that, even when vulnerable, she remains venerable.
Williams has established herself so far ahead of the rest of the women on the WTA Tour that the rankings race is a competition for No. 2.
Sharapova looks solid in that spot.
Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep, widely considered the future of women's tennis, tanked at the tournament. It was Madison Keys, 19, who looked more like the next-generation champion.
Meanwhile, Venus Williams, 34, played with a champion's heart. Poised to jump to No. 11, Venus Williams could be back in the Top 10 before the next Slam.
When the new WTA rankings come out Monday, beneath the obvious top two players, there will be some notable leaps and drops.
Based on points earned in Melbourne, the projected rankings will have Keys moving up 15 spots to enter the Top 20 for the first time. Sloane Stephens and Victoria Azarenka, who met in the first round, face steep falls. Stephens slips to No. 41 and Azarenka to No. 49.
Taking into consideration their performance in Melbourne and projected rankings, these are the Top 10 women in tennis after the Australian Open.
Honorable Mention: Madison Keys
1 of 11
Keys leaps 15 spots to No. 20. However, she performed like a Top 10 player. She served like a champion, hitting 42 aces in the tournament and 12 in her semifinal match against Serena Williams.
Keys played in attack mode throughout the tournament. She rocketed winners from both wings. Her groundstrokes are as fluid as they are powerful.
Serving to stay in the match against Williams, Keys fought off eight match points in one game. She has big-game tennis in her veins.
10. Venus Williams
2 of 11
With her younger sister tallying titles, sometimes Venus Williams is under appreciated as a seven-Slam champion.
She remains the second-winningest active player.
That's probably because, until recently, Venus Williams wasn't much of a factor in Grand Slams. Williams' comeback win over No. 6 seed Agnieszka Radwanska put her in the quarterfinals of a Slam for the first time since Wimbledon in 2010.
Now that Venus Williams will be ranked No. 11, she can also avoid drawing Top 10 players in the first round. Williams comes in at No. 10, ahead of Angelique Kerber because, like an up-and-coming teen, her game is on the rise.
9. Eugenie Bouchard
3 of 11
Bouchard reached the quarterfinals without having to play any seeded players. Then Sharapova rolled over Bouchard like she was a mild speed bump on the road to the final.
Bouchard continues to demolish unknowns and the lowly ranked. Her game against the upper echelon remains suspect. Is she playing worse, or have they figured her out? Right now she lacks a coach and clarity in her game. She's got all spring (where she has few points to defend) to figure it out.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
8. Agnieszka Radwanska
4 of 11
Agnieszka Radwanska will fall to No. 8 in the rankings. Despite losing to Venus Williams in the fourth round, Radwanska showed improvement in some areas of her game. Clearly, her new coach, Martina Navratilova, has helped Radwanska with her serve. She played more aggressive tennis. Radwanska just ran into a red-hot Venus Williams.
7. Ekaterina Makarova
5 of 11
Ekaterina Makarova was outmatched and overwhelmed against Sharapova in the semis. It's the second straight Slam that Makarova has been completely outclassed in a semifinal.
On the other hand, she's reached the semifinals in two consecutive Slams. It's the third straight Slam where she has gone to the quarters or better. When Bouchard had similar results last year, there was plenty of buzz. Yet Makarova remains under the radar.
6. Ana Ivanovic
6 of 11
Ana Ivanovic's first-round loss was the first big shocker of the tournament. Ivanovic had been playing so well. She had climbed back into the Top Five. She will fall to No. 6 on Monday, exactly where she sits here.
Because of her major upset over Serena Williams in the 2014 Australian Open, Ivanovic came in as a sleeper to win it all. But if you blinked, you missed her.
Still, Ivanovic is a Grand Slam champion and former No. 1. She's also one of the hardest hitters on tour.
5. Caroline Wozniacki
7 of 11
Caroline Wozniacki had the misfortune of drawing two-time Australian Open winner Azarenka in the second round. Azarenka, trying to play her way back into form, defeated Wozniacki.
Wozniacki reached the final at the U.S. Open and the semifinals at the WTA Finals in Singapore. She had hoped to build on her recent success with a solid showing in Melbourne. Unfortunately, the bad luck of the draw did her in.
Still, Wozniacki will move up to No. 5 in the rankings, partly due to points she gained at the U.S. Open and points Ivanovic lost.
4. Simona Halep
8 of 11
Halep will maintain her No. 3 ranking on the WTA Tour. However, she slips to No. 4 here based on a horrendous performance against Makarova in the quarterfinals.
In her post-match interview, Halep chalked it up to "a bad day." That was a gross understatement. Halep served four double faults, made 31 unforced errors and went 1-of-9 on break-point chances. She won just 36 percent of the points off her second serve.
3. Petra Kvitova
9 of 11
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova will remain at No. 4 when the new rankings come out. She moves up to No. 3 here by virtue of Halep's poor performance. Also, Kvitova played well. She just ran into Keys, who was playing lights-out tennis.
Prior to the match with Keys, Kvitova was getting better than 60 percent of her first serves in. Against Keys, her first-serve percentage fell to 52. Her big lefty serve is such a weapon. It will continue to be. Keys simply caught Kvitova off guard.
After their match Kvitova, spoke to reporters about the noticeable improvements in Keys' game since they last played each other. "I think that she gets more balls than when I played her in the Tokyo. So I think she improve like globally. Yeah, I think she can be one of the top ones, for sure."
2. Maria Sharapova
10 of 11
Sharapova could not conceal the disappointment she felt after losing her 16th straight match to Serena Williams. The pain and frustration were evident on her face. You have to wonder: For Sharapova, what hurts worse—losing another Slam or realizing that even your best wasn't good enough?
Sharapova brought her A-game against an ailing Serena Williams. The five-time Slam champion came out with an aggressive game plan and a few new tricks. She threw in some drop shots and served five aces. However, she was just no match for Williams, who served 18 aces.
Still, Sharapova can take pride in being a solid No. 2. She is headed for the Hall of Fame and still has plenty of tennis left to play in her career.
But for now, Sharapova must be satisfied with taking a back seat to Williams. Then again, if the driver is one of the greatest of all time, being in the back seat means you're enjoying one heck of a ride.
1. Serena Williams
11 of 11
Nineteen was a lucky number for Williams.
She beat 19-year-old Keys to advance to the final. In her 19th match against Sharapova, Williams won her 19th Grand Slam.
Keys will be 20 by the French Open, and if Williams were to clash with Sharapova again, it would be their 20th meeting and she'd be aiming for her 20th Grand Slam.
After her win, Williams told Chris Evert, via an ESPN interview, that she did not immediately think about the chance to win 20. Instead, she wanted to savor the moment.
It was a gutsy performance by Williams. She proved that, even when not at her best, her game is superior to the rest. Fighting a wicked cough, Williams withstood a second-set surge by Sharapova. She needed to win a tiebreaker to close out the match.
The win creates more distance between her and Sharapova in terms of rankings points. It also separated her from Evert and Martina Navratilova, who each won 18 Slams. Only Graf has more Slam titles in the Open era.
Williams already leads Graf in Grand Slam final winning percentage. Williams is 19-4 in Grand Slam finals, the top winning percentage in the Open era for a male or female player.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
