The summer hard-court swing kicked off last week on the Hologic WTA Tour with a WTA 500 event in Washington, D.C., and a WTA 250 in Prague.
Leylah Fernandez won the biggest title of her career, in Washington, continuing her strong form on U.S. hard courts. In Prague, Czech players dominated, with eight in the last 16 and both finalists from the host nation. Marie Bouzkova won the title for a second time, adding to her 2022 title.
Both champions climbed in this week’s PIF WTA Rankings: Fernandez rose 12 spots to No. 24, and Bouzkova moved up eight to No. 39, the highest ranking for each since last August.
The other major storyline of the week was the surprise return of former World No. 1 Venus Williams, who played her first match in 14 months after undergoing surgery for uterine fibroids. The 45-year-old defeated Peyton Stearns in Washington to reach the second round.
Williams became the oldest player to win a tour-level match since 47-year-old Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon in 2004, and the oldest to beat a Top 50 opponent since Navratilova in Eastbourne in 2002.
Unranked since Miami, Williams returns to the PIF WTA Rankings at No. 643, making her the oldest player currently ranked, ahead of 43-year-old Junri Namigata at No. 1,177.
Francesca Jones, Valentova make Top 100 debuts
Two new entrants to the Top 100 take the total number of players who have broken into that echelon for the first time in 2025 to 19.
Britain’s Francesca Jones, 24, took home her second WTA 125 title in three weeks with a dominant run in Palermo, where she didn’t drop a set. Born with ectrodactyly ectodermal dysplasia, a condition that results in fewer fingers and toes, Jones rises 17 spots to a career-high No. 84. Her 2025 record now stands at 37-13.
In Prague, Tereza Valentova, 18, reached her first tour-level semifinal, extending her winning streak to eight matches and 16 sets following her Porto WTA 125 title the previous week. The Czech teenager’s run included her first Top 50 win over No. 2 seed Rebecca Sramkova in the second round. Valentova, who started the year at No. 241, now boasts a 39-9 record, and enters the Top 100 with a 14-place jump from No. 106 to No. 92.
Townsend ascends to doubles top spot
Taylor Townsend became the 50th player to reach No. 1 in the WTA doubles rankings, rising one spot to overtake her regular partner, Katerina Siniakova.
Playing in Washington with former doubles No. 2 Zhang Shuai, the American clinched the top ranking by reaching the final, then celebrated by winning her 10th career title, successfully defending the championship she won last year with Asia Muhammad.
Townsend, 29, became a Grand Slam champion for the first time at Wimbledon 2024, which she won with Siniakova. The pair added a second major trophy at the Australian Open this year, as well as becoming the champions in Dubai. They also reached the final of the 2024 WTA Finals Riyadh, falling to Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe. This year, Townsend has had to bounce back from sustaining a mid-match concussion in Miami that sidelined her for most of the clay swing.
Townsend also made an impressive singles run in Washington, qualifying and reaching the quarterfinals. She climbs 22 spots in the rankings, from No. 97 to No. 75.
Other notable rankings movements
Anna Kalinskaya, +17 to No. 31: Former No. 11 Kalinskaya reached her first final in 13 months, and third overall, in Washington.
Emma Raducanu, +13 to No. 33: Former US Open champion Raducanu made her fourth career tour-level semifinal in Washington.
Maria Sakkari, +18 to No. 72: Former No. 3 Sakkari reached her second quarterfinal of 2025 in Washington, upsetting Emma Navarro en route for her second Top 20 win of the year.
Caty McNally, +18 to No. 116: McNally’s comeback from elbow surgery gathered momentum as she extended her winning streak to 10 by capturing the Evansville ITF W100 title last week. Former No. 54 McNally had won the Newport WTA 125 two weeks previously.
Jessika Ponchet, +23 to No. 139: Ponchet, 28, reached the second tour-level quarterfinal of her season — and of her career — last week in Prague. She also made the last eight of Rouen in April; in both of those runs, the Frenchwoman was a lucky loser.
Tatiana Prozorova, +17 to No. 140: Prozorova, 21, hits a new career high after making the Palermo WTA 125 semifinals.
Darja Vidmanova, +21 to No. 168: NCAA champion Vidmanova continued to make a rapid transition to the pro ranks by reaching her first ITF W100 final last week in Evansville. Thirteen months ago, Vidmanova was unranked. The 22-year-old Czech has compiled a 62-12 record since last June (22-4 in 2025) and is at another new career high.
Anouk Koevermans, +29 to No. 172: Koevermans, who made her tour-level debut as a wild card in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, reached her first career WTA 125 final last week in Palermo and rises to a new career high. The 21-year-old Dutchwoman is the daughter of former ATP No. 37 Mark Koevermans.
Maria Timofeeva, +70 to No. 194: 2023 Budapest champion Timofeeva cracked the Top 100 after reaching the last 16 of the 2024 Australian Open, only to slump to No. 277 a month ago. The 21-year-old has begun to resurrect her ranking in style, capturing the Figueira da Foz ITF W100 title — her first at any level since Budapest 2023 — as a qualifier. Timofeeva dropped just 24 games in seven matches, and did not lose more than three games in any set.
Alina Korneeva, +56 to No. 203: Also on the way back up is Figueira da Foz finalist Korneeva, 18, who was also a qualifier in the tournament. Korneeva was a former junior No. 1 who defeated Mirra Andreeva in the 2023 Australian Open girls’ final and reached No. 128 in the WTA rankings just over a year later — but she has been beset by injury since, undergoing wrist surgery in April 2024. Korneeva missed eight months of that season, reached her first WTA semifinal in Merida after coming back, but was sidelined for another five months this year before returning to action last month.
Eva Vedder, +32 to No. 209: The 25-year-old Dutchwoman rises to a new career high after reaching the Figueira da Foz ITF W100 semifinals.
Lucciana Perez Alarcon, +36 to No. 365: Perez Alarcon has put together a 10-match winning streak in Brazil this month, capturing back-to-back ITF W35 titles in Rio Claro and Sao Paulo to rise to a new career high. The 20-year-old Peruvian — who was the 2023 Roland Garros junior finalist — is still a college student at Texas A&M.
Ane Mintegi Del Olmo, +116 to No. 461: The 2021 Wimbledon junior champion on the comeback trail from injury won her second ITF W35 title of the season two weeks ago in Torino. Mintegi Del Olmo, 21, returns to the Top 500 for the first time since 2022.