Williams remains top in WTA rankings despite Toronto semi loss

American Serena Williams retains a comfortable lead at the top of the latest WTA rankings released on Monday in spite of suffering a semi-final defeat in her last tournament in Toronto, Canada.

Williams, who has won all three grand slams this season, leads the pack on 11,821 points, with Russia’s Maria Sharapova second on 6,036.

Inside the top 10, Caroline Wozniacki, Karolina Pliskova and Garbine Muguruza all gained single places at the expense of Ana Ivanovic, who dropped three.

Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, who conquered Williams en route to winning in Toronto, moved up from 20th to 12th, narrowly outside the top 10.

WTA top 10 as of August 17 (previous ranking in parenthesis):

1. (1) Serena Williams, United States, 11,821 points

2. (2) Maria Sharapova, Russia, 6,036

3. (3) Simona Halep, Romania, 5,546

4. (4) Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic, 4,995

5. (5) Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark, 4,735

6. (7) Lucie Safarova, Czech Republic, 3,361

7. (8) Karolina Pliskova, Czech Republic, 3,335

8. (9) Garbine Muguruza, Spain, 3,315

9. (6) Ana Ivanovic, Serbia, 3,311

10. (10) Carla Suarez Navarro, Spain, 3,190.

dpa/NAN.