MANILA, Philippines — Some fans were left confused or surprised when Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala rose at the WTA live rankings despite getting booted out at the Philippine Women’s Open (PWO) quarterfinals Thursday, elevating from 49th to a new career-best 45th.
It’s easy to think that an early exit should drop any player in the rankings right?
That’s now how it works when it comes to the WTA rankings.
Some players especially near above Eala dropped in the rankings, enabling the Filipino player to move up and take the vacated spot.
It could also be the case in which a player gained enormous points that she’s able to leap over the players who are doing just fine.
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A prime example is Eala gaining 390 ranking points from her historic semis finish at the 1000-level Miami Open last March, and moving approximately from 140th to 75th in the rankings,
How does a player drop or rise in the rankings?
For starters, the WTA ranking system sums up the ranking points gained by a player from her 16 best tournaments in the past 52 weeks (1 year).
Once that specific tournament turned one year old, the ranking points gained by the player from that competition dropped off and was replaced by her latest tournament results.
The cycle continues as players defend, gain, or lose points in the current tournament year.
Eala gained 27 ranking points for her quarterfinal finish at the inaugural PWO, a 125-level tournament, gaining a total of 1163 and rising from 49th to new career-best 45th in the live rankings.
As of writing, Eala had a +4 net gain in ranking points, which most likely means she had 23 in the same tournament week (tournament day even) last year.
This means that Eala defended those 23 ranking points and even gained four more since she acquired 27 in this tournament week.
Some players lost their points from last year as they were unable to match or exceed how they did in the same tournament week a year ago.
Case in point is world no. 48 Laura Siegemund of Germany who has a -60 in her ranking points for a total of 1111 this week.
Live rankings vs official rankings
WTA live rankings update almost in real time, telling the ranking movement and points of players once their match is over.
On the other hand, the official rankings only update once a week, and it’s usually Monday morning here in Manila.
