Serena Williams moved one place up into ninth in the latest women’s tennis rankings issued on Monday by the WTA, thanks to her first title in almost three years won the previous day.
The veteran American Williams lifted the Auckland trophy on Sunday by beating compatriot Jessica Pegula, her first silverware as a mother as her last trophy before that at the 2017 Australian Open came early in her pregnancy.
Williams moved into ninth place at the expense of Dutch Kiki Bertens a week ahead of the start of the Melbourne grand slam.
Australia’s Ashleigh Barty remained top with 7,547 points, well ahead of Czech Karolina Pliskova (5,940) and defending Australian Open champ Naomi Osaka of Japan (5,496). Williams has 4,215 points.
WTA top 10 as of January 13 (previous ranking in parenthesis):
* 1. (1) Ashleigh Barty, Australia, 7547 points
* 2. (2) Karolina Pliskova, Czech Republic, 5940
* 3. (4) Naomi Osaka, Japan, 5496
* 4. (3) Simona Halep, Romania, 5461
* 5. (5) Eelina Svitolina, Ukraine, 5075
* 6. (6) Bianca Andreescu, Canada, 4935
* 7. (8) Belinda Bencic, Switzerland, 4605
* 8. (7) Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic, 4436
* 9. (10) Serena Williams, United States, 4215
* 10. (9) Kiki Bertens, Netherlands, 4165.
