Kostovic Climbs 27 Spots, Djokovic Stays 12th in World
Monday's new WTA rankings brought the biggest single week jump among Serbian tennis players, while Novak Djokovic held his spot on the ATP list.
Teodora Kostovic became Serbia’s top ranked woman on the tennis tour this Monday, September 21, after jumping 27 places on the new WTA rankings. She now sits at 159th in the world with 461 points, the single biggest rise of any Serbian player, man or woman, this week. The climb came with no explanation attached: neither Kurir nor Ekspres, the two outlets that first reported the new list, said which tournament earned her those points. That detail will presumably surface once results from the court are published.
Serbia’s other two highest ranked women moved in the opposite direction this week. Lola Radivojevic dropped 14 places and is now 172nd with 440 points, while Mia Ristic slid seven spots to 191st with 407 points. Taken together, the picture is mixed: Serbia gained a new top ranked woman, but the two players just behind her lost ground.
At the top of the WTA list, nothing changed. Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina remains first with 9,901 points, ahead of Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka. Behind them are Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, followed by Russia’s Mirra Andreeva and the Czech Republic’s Linda Noskova. Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina is seventh, the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova and Poland’s Iga Swiatek share eighth and ninth, and another Ukrainian, Marta Kostyuk, rounds out the top ten.
On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic held onto 12th place on the ATP list with 2,980 points. The gap to the top stayed enormous: Italy’s Jannik Sinner is still first with 11,500 points, more than four times what the Serbian star has. Germany’s Alexander Zverev sits second, 1,810 points behind the leader, with Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz third. American Ben Shelton is fourth and Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime fifth, while the top ten is rounded out by Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, Italy’s Flavio Cobolli, American Frances Tiafoe, Australia’s Alex de Minaur and another American, Taylor Fritz. Not a single spot at the top moved compared with last week.
Two Serbian men, unlike Djokovic, did move up this week, both after playing for the national team in the Davis Cup. Miomir Kecmanovic gained one place and is now 60th on the ATP list with 925 points, while Hamad Medjedovic also picked up one spot and sits 76th with 764 points. The gains are small, but every point matters in the fight for seeding at upcoming tournaments.
The rest of Serbia’s men held their positions this week. Dusan Lajovic is 147th with 380 points, and Laslo Djere is 181st with 314 points.
Put together, Serbian tennis is telling two different stories this week. On the men’s side, everything is calm: Djokovic has been holding his spot for some time, and Kecmanovic and Medjedovic are quietly nudging past the players above them after the Davis Cup, one place at a time, with no sudden jumps. On the women’s side it is the reverse: Kostovic leapfrogged nearly thirty players in a single week to become the country’s top ranked player, while Radivojevic and Ristic both went the other way. Which of the two will recover her old spot first, and whether Kostovic can hold onto her new ranking, will show up on the next list.
