UNI

New Delhi, Sep 11: Having failed to break Anna Chakvetadze jinx in the US Open third round, Sania Mirza remained static at 27th spot in singles even as she climbed to her career-best 18th in doubles in the latest WTA rankings issued on Monday.

Sania, who broke into top 30 early last month, had risen steadily in WTA rankings after fine shows in the US hard court tournaments but could not get past Russian Chakvetadze in the third round of the last grand slam of the season, her fourth defeat this season to the same opponent, having lost at Hobart, Cincinnati and Stanford.

Sania though reaped rich harvest for reaching quarter-finals in doubles at the flushing meadows, pairing with American Bethanie Mattek, and jumped to 18th in individual rankings, two places better than in the pervious chart.

Meanwhile, young Tara Iyer, who has had a fine season in the ITF circuit, made a phenomenon 43-place jump to occupy 350th in WTA singles and she is now the third highest-ranked Indian woman behind Sania and Sunitha Rao who also gained 12 places to 208th.

Others down the order are Rushmi Chakravarthi (363), Isha Lakhani (428), Shikha Uberoi (436), Ankita Bhambri (438) And Sanna Bhambri (467).

Ace Indian doubles player Leander Paes paid the price for crashing out of the US Open in the first round and slipped eight places to 16th in doubles individual rankings while Mahesh Bhupathi, who moved one round better than his estranged partner, closed in to 20th despite losing two places.

In ATP singles, Rohan Bopanna gained nine places to 252nd while Prakash Amritraj (273rd) and Karan Rastogi (347th) lost one and three places respectively.