WTA Hard Court Rankings, pre-Wimbledon

Watch out, ladies, this site isn’t just for the ATP anymore.

It was a bit of a struggle, but I was able to assemble a ranking and results database for women’s tennis (both WTA and ITF) going back several years.  That allowed me to apply my ranking algorithm to WTA players.  This is still a work in progress–I’ve had to borrow a few assumptions from my ATP research–but I think the results generally make a lot of sense.

For newcomers, here are a few of the key differences between my rankings and the official WTA rankings:

• My system considers matches going back two years–not just one.  Incidentally, this helps us better evaluate the Williams sisters, just as it helps us with Juan Martin del Potro in the ATP numbers.
• The more recent the tournament, the more it counts in the rankings.
• Points are based almost entirely on the quality of opponents, not on the level of the event.  If you beat Vera Zvonereva, it’s worth the same number of points whether it’s at Indian Wells or in Brussels.  (There is a slight boost for grand slams, on the assumption that players plan their seasons to peak at the slams.)
• Surface is considered.  For these hard/grass-court rankings, hard-court results are weighted more heavily than clay-court results.  For instance, Francesca Schiavone is #26 here, but #10 in the clay-court rankings.

Here is the HeavyTopspin.com WTA hard-court top 100:

RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
1     Kim Clijsters                  9286  
2     Caroline Wozniacki             7888  
3     Victoria Azarenka              7040  
4     Vera Zvonareva                 6222  
5     Na Li                          5167  
6     Serena Williams                5142  
7     Petra Kvitova                  4854  
8     Maria Sharapova                4596  
9     Svetlana Kuznetsova            3607  
10    Venus Williams                 3551  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
11    Andrea Petkovic                3514  
12    Shuai Peng                     3498  
13    Marion Bartoli                 3332  
14    Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova       3268  
15    Agnieszka Radwanska            3207  
16    Samantha Stosur                3137  
17    Ana Ivanovic                   3129  
18    Flavia Pennetta                3074  
19    Alisa Kleybanova               3005  
20    Dominika Cibulkova             2931  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
21    Jelena Jankovic                2693  
22    Daniela Hantuchova             2505  
23    Yanina Wickmayer               2452  
24    Shahar Peer                    2318  
25    Kaia Kanepi                    2252  
26    Francesca Schiavone            2229  
27    Ekaterina Makarova             2010  
28    Sabine Lisicki                 1997  
29    Julia Goerges                  1970  
30    Maria Kirilenko                1961  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
31    Lucie Safarova                 1913  
32    Elena Vesnina                  1912  
33    Gisela Dulko                   1835  
34    Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez    1764  
35    Nadia Petrova                  1717  
36    Virginie Razzano               1673  
37    Dinara Safina                  1626  
38    Jie Zheng                      1619  
39    Anastasija Sevastova           1484  
40    Klara Zakopalova               1450  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
41    Aravane Rezai                  1420  
42    Kateryna Bondarenko            1370  
43    Bethanie Mattek-Sands          1345  
44    Roberta Vinci                  1320  
45    Anna Chakvetadze               1294  
46    Alona Bondarenko               1277  
47    Jarmila Gajdosova              1263  
48    Melanie Oudin                  1247  
49    Vera Dushevina                 1168  
50    Iveta Benesova                 1166  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
51    Alize Cornet                   1157  
52    Sara Errani                    1102  
53    Magdalena Rybarikova           1048  
54    Timea Bacsinszky               1038  
55    Agnes Szavay                    991  
56    Tsvetana Pironkova              986  
57    Barbora Zahlavova Strycova      953  
58    Bojana Jovanovski               952  
59    Kimiko Date-Krumm               917  
60    Alexandra Dulgheru              905  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
61    Greta Arn                       891  
62    Simona Halep                    889  
63    Tamira Paszek                   868  
64    Vania King                      856  
65    Polona Hercog                   848  
66    Angelique Kerber                820  
67    Jelena Dokic                    818  
68    Christina McHale                800  
69    Elena Baltacha                  784  
70    Sorana Cirstea                  771  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
71    Carla Suarez Navarro            751  
72    Yaroslava Shvedova              749  
73    Kirsten Flipkens                741  
74    Lucie Hradecka                  738  
75    Sybille Bammer                  737  
76    Aleksandra Wozniak              728  
77    Johanna Larsson                 722  
78    Alla Kudryavtseva               716  
79    Regina Kulikova                 693  
80    Monica Niculescu                677  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
81    Petra Martic                    671  
82    Kristina Barrois                656  
83    Ayumi Morita                    654  
84    Urszula Radwanska               638  
85    Olga Govortsova                 635  
86    Sofia Arvidsson                 630  
87    Coco Vandeweghe                 602  
88    Anastasiya Yakimova             592  
89    Anabel Medina Garrigues         590  
90    Kai-Chen Chang                  570  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
91    Eleni Daniilidou                566  
92    Rebecca Marino                  564  
93    Anastasia Rodionova             560  
94    Melinda Czink                   550  
95    Arantxa Rus                     535  
96    Ksenia Pervak                   527  
97    Michaella Krajicek              522  
98    Vesna Dolonts                   512  
99    Tamarine Tanasugarn             508  
100   Alison Riske                    501