John Isner has become the top U.S. men’s tennis player for the first time, taking ninth place in the ATP rankings from compatriot Mardy Fish in the new table published Monday.
Russian players held steady in the both the ATP and women’s WTA rankings, with no major changes for any of the top players.
Isner’s new career high was the result of reaching Sunday’s final of the Houston Open, losing 2-6, 6-3, 3-6 to Argentina’s Juan Monaco, who took his second title of 2012 and climbed two places to 14th in the rankings as a result.
Fish held on to tenth place, just ahead of Argentinian No. 1 Juan Martin del Potro, ensuring that the U.S. continues to boast two top-ten players, as do Spain and Serbia.
There were no other movements in the top ten of the ATP rankings, although Austria’s Jurgen Melzer attracted attention with an eight-place slide to 29th place. He has not played since a third-round defeat to Gilles Simon in Miami last month.
Russian No. 1 Mikhail Youzhny held onto his 35th spot, with Nikolai Davydenko remaining three places behind him, while Alex Bogomolov Jr. dropped one place to 41st.
Russia has a new No. 4 men’s player, after former world No.18 Igor Andreev climbed 18 places to 82nd.
In the women’s rankings, the top ten was unchanged, leaving Belarusian player Viktoria Azarenka on top and world No. 2 Maria Sharapova and No. 9 Vera Zvonareva as Russia’s top two players.
Former U.S. Open champion Jelena Jankovic was the main mover, climbing two places to 18th ahead of her appearance this weekend for Serbia against Russia in the Fed Cup.
Russia’s Maria Kirilenko, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Svetlana Kuznetsova held on to 21st, 22nd and 27th places respectively, while Nadia Petrova dropped two places to No. 34 and Ekaterina Makarova held steady at No. 39.
