After a US Open that no one anticipated, there have been some major shuffles in the rankings. Serena Williams has remained world number one, despite the disappointment she faced at Flushing Meadows last week, and still has almost double the points of her nearest competitor(11,501 points to Simona Halep's 6780), which guarantees her a spot in the WTA Finals in Singapore and the year-end number one.
Rest of the major movers and fallers in rankings
US Open champion Flavia Pennetta, who announced her retirement after a series of captivating performances last week, has surged through the rankings to finish off in the top 10 which is a career-high. Fellow Italian, finalist (and Serena-beater) Roberta Vinci climbed a staggering 24 places to end the week in the top 20. Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard has had a dismal season, and when she finally looked like she was getting back in the groove, she fell down in the locker room and got a serious concussion (there has been no update on her situation currently, but until Sunday she was still in New York in her hotel room). However, she's managed to keep her ranking constant at 25 due to a substandard performance by Jelena Jankovic.
After a disappointing run at the US Open, Alize Cornet took a major fall, dropping six places to 35, and Ana Ivanovic slipped down to nine. Other major ranking losses include Azarenka (at 23), Errani (at 21), Bencic (at 15) and Makarova (at 20). Despite pulling out of the US Open before it even began, Maria Sharapova kept her ranking constant at three with Petra Kvitova (who suffered from mono earlier in the year) hot at her heels.
Eva Asderaki-Moore has had her fair share of praise last week after becoming the first woman to chair umpire a men's final match. Along with Marija Cicak, she was a part of the first all women's team to officiate both finals on a Grand Slam weekend. Players like equal rights pioneer Billie Jean King and Laura Robson have tweeted their support for this historic moment.
Olympic qualifiers
In other news, seven players have already qualified for the Rio Olympics. The criteria was being a Grand Slam champion or having the required number of points and being in the top 200 in June 2016. The players who've qualified are world number one Williams, Radwanska, Bencic, Halep, Stosur, Ivanovic and Vinci. However this is subject to a particular number of Fed Cup ties played. Garbine Muguruza, Victoria Azarenka and Flavia Pennetta have almost qualified based on points, but lack in Fed Cup participation. Points required depend from country to country, and more qualification announcements are expected in the upcoming weeks.
The US Open may be over, but there a few tournaments to look out for next week that include WTA Premier Events like Tokyo (starting on 21st September) and Wuhan (starting on 27th September), that have an exceptionally strong draw this year.