MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Lyudmila Samsonova climbed two spots up in the WTA (the Women Tennis Association) Rankings and is now the country’s best female tennis player, according to the new rankings list of the organization published on Monday.
The 24-year-old Samsonova is now ranked 15th in the Women’s Tennis Association Rankings and has four WTA titles under her belt. Playing on the Grand Slam circuit, she has never made it past the quarterfinals. In 2021, she won the Billie Jean King Cup as part of the Russian national team.
She is followed in the new WTA Rankings by her compatriots Veronika Kudermetova (16th place) and Daria Kasatkina (17th place).
The Top-10 of the new WTA Rankings is as follows: 1st Arina Sobolenko (Belarusian tennis player competing in international tennis tournaments under a neutral status), 2nd Iga Swiatek (Poland), 3rd Coco Gauff (the United States), 4th Yelena Rybakina (Kazakhstan), 5th Jessica Pegula (the United States), 6th Marketa Vondrousova (the Czech Republic), 7th Ons Jabeur (Tunisia), 8th Karolina Muchova (the Czech Republic), 9th Maria Sakkari (Greece), 10th Barbora Krejcikova (the Czech Republic).
Russian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ruled on March 1, 2022 to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations while also canceling all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in the two countries.
On March 14, 2022, the ITF also confirmed its prohibition on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from taking part in the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.
However, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed tennis players from Russia and Belarus to continue participating in WTA and ATP tournaments, but only under a neutral status.