Berlin – Victoria Azarenka of Belarus retained first place in the women's tennis rankings issued on Monday by the WTA, and Angelique Kerber rose to sixth as the highest-ranked German since Steffi Graf.
Azarenka has 9,025 points to lead the way from Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska (8,115), who moved ahead of Russian Maria Sharapova (7,695) again into second place.
Kerber rose from seventh to sixth, at the expense of Australia's Samantha Stosur, after reaching the Cincinnati final and is the best-ranked German since the national icon Graf retired as third-placed player in 1999.
WTA top 10 as of August 20 (previous ranking in parenthesis):
1. (1) Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 9,025 points
2. (3) Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland, 8,115
3. (2) Maria Sharapova, Russia, 7,695
4. (4) Serena Williams, United States, 7,300
5. (5) Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic, 6,170
6. (7) Angelique Kerber, Germany, 5,715
7. (6) Samantha Stosur, Australia, 5,700
8. (8) Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark, 4,605
9. (9) Li Na, China, 4,570
10. (10) Sara Errani, Italy, 3,730 – Sapa-dpa