Tennis Rankings: Andy Murray rise continues after Antwerp title; Jelena Ostapenko returns to top-10

Former world number one Andy Murray was rewarded for his victory in Antwerp at the weekend, with another dramatic rise in the ATP rankings released on Monday. Also making a significant jump in the rankings, on the WTA side, was Jelena Ostapenko following her title in Luxembourg. Murray, who is on the comeback trail after career-saving hip surgery, climbed 116 places to 127 following his 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Stan Wawrinka – his first title in two years. [caption id=“attachment_7526841” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Andy Murray fought back from a set and 3-1 down against Wawrinka to claim his 46th career title. AP[/caption] Murray, who has won three Grand Slam titles and spent 41 weeks at number one from November 2016 to August 2017, saw his ranking slip as low as 839 in July 2018 as his injured hip threatened to end his career. At the end of September he was ranked down at 503, meaning he has climbed 376 places in three weeks. He is now expected to take a break as his wife waits for the birth of their third child. Novak Djokovic remains at number one, the 273rd week in his career that he holds the top spot, with Rafael Nadal just 320 points behind. The only change in the top 10 sees the Japanese Kei Nishikori climbing one place from nine to eight with the Russian Karen Khachanov slipping down in the other direction. Latvian Ostapenko beat her former doubles partner Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-1 to win her first WTA title in two years. This is her third WTA title and first since Seoul 2017. The title took the former Roland Garros champion 19 places up to 44th in the WTA Rankings. The top-3 in the WTA rankings remained unchanged with Australia’s Ashleigh Barty occupying the top spot followed by Karolina Pliskova and Naomi Osaka. US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova all moved one place up with Elina Svitolina going four places down. Serena Williams remained steady at ninth with Kiki Bertens rounding off the top-10. Another player to make onward strides in the latest update is Swiss Belinda Bencic. She won the title in Moscow to climb three places at No.7. More importantly, she qualified for the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen. (With AFP inputs)