The 6 February 2006 WTA rankings are out and Makiri stays at #23 in singles with 823.50 points, as we expected. She does move up nicely in the doubles rankings to #21 with 1318 points. Both are her all time best rankings! Congratulations to Makiri and her fans!!!
To show how close things are just ahead of Makiri, IF, IF, IF, IF she had beaten Hingis and gained those extra 60 points, Makiri would indeed be #20 in the world right now (2.5 points ahead of Dechy). Right in front of Makiri are:
#22 Groenefeld - 842 points (18.5 points ahead of Makiri)
#21 Jankovic - 856 (32.5)
#20 Dechy - 881 (57.5)
#19 Ivanovic - 930 (106.5)
This year Makiri is taking a two week break after the Toray PPO, last year she only took one week off. So she will lose some points before she takes the court again. This week last year Makiri was at Hyderadad and made the Semi's, and has 43 points to defend. As she is not playing, she will have those points roll off in the next ranking on 13 Feb. She should be 780.5 in the 13 Feb rankings. When she returns she will have another strong outing to defend. During the 3rd week in Feb 2005 she made the quarters in Doha. Is there a chance Makiri could slide back a ranking or two over the next two off weeks. Well #24 Golovin is at 758 points, and will have to have a net gain of points herself to move up. Makiri probably pretty safe to retain her #23 until she returns.
BTW, for the poll in my opinion Makiri will get to the top 20 but not move up to the top 15. In my opinion as Makiri moves up the competition will get more difficult and as she goes deeper into 2006 the points she will need to defend wil become greater (harder to gain net points). My opinion only, looking forward to seeing what everyone else thinks!
