Tennis: Ranking of Women's Tennis Players - Archive

The archive consists of a short history, a seasons' archive index and an overview of the EPL-rating records from 2012 until today.

History

I started ranking the Expected Performance Level of female tennis players at the end of the 2010 season. The top 10 of that time (the 8 participants in the WTA Championships plus the Williams sisters) all started with a 6000-point rating, arbitrarily chosen. The rest of the top 100 received a start rating based on WTA-points, ending at 4900 points for the #100. The first year I used to let the rating structure settle.

During the first year, 2011, the top came down quite quickly, with a top 10 spread between 5605 points (#10 Sharapova) and 5934 points (#1 Serena Williams) at the end of the season. Since then, the rating structure kept settling until about the end of 2016, after which it has stabilized. Currently the level of the top lies around 5500 points, with the area around #100 hovering around 4800 points. It is mostly the width of the top of the women's tennis circuit that is keeping the top level down.

Seasons Archive Index

The seasons archive contains all news flashes and rankings for each season starting in 2012.

Rating Records

Record	Player	Rating points	Year/Tournament
Highest rating	Serena Williams	6063	Brisbane 2014
Biggest lead for a #1	Iga Swiatek	380	Roland Garros 2022
Most points gained in 1 season	Ashleigh Barty	+724	2017
Most points won in 7-round tournament	Emma Raducanu	+329	U.S. Open 2021
Most points won in 6-round tournament	Monica Puig	+227	Olympic Games 2016
Most points won in 5-round tournament	Tsvetana Pironkova	+147	Sydney 2014
Most points lost in 1 season	Angelique Kerber	-448	2017
Most points lost in 7-round tournament	Iga Swiatek	-111	Wimbledon 2022
Most points lost in 6-round tournament	Serena Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska	-64	Olympic Games 2016
Most points lost in 5-round tournament	Lucie Safarova	-48	Budapest 2013
Most points transferred in 1 match	Larcher de Brito def. Sharapova	82	Wimbledon 2013
Most points transferred in 1 match	Pironkova def. Muguruza	82	US Open 2020

Some other statistics

The rating of the #1 player in the ranking has varied between 5442 (Ashleigh Barty, June 26, 2021) and 6063 (Serena Williams, January 5, 2014). Only four players have been above 5800 points since the start of 2012. Apart from Williams, this was achieved by Victoria Azarenka (top rating 5996, after Indian Wells 2012), Maria Sharapova (top rating 5877, after Roland Garros 2012) and Kim Clijsters (top rating 5815, after Australian Open 2012). Iga Swiatek's rating of 5751 on June 5, 2022, was the highest since 2016.