Akgul Amanmuradova: Player Ranked Outside the Top 100 Who Reached the Second Round of the 2013 #AustralianOpen

In 2010, Akgul Amanmuradova, reached a career high of #69 in the world.  Coming into this year's Australian Open, she finds herself at #199.  She won her first round match against Frenchwoman Mathilde Johansson, currently ranked #88, 64 62.  She lost her second round match today to Roberta Vinci, currently ranked #16, 36 26.

Matches I've Seen: Petra Kvitova vs. Akgul Amanmuradova

Petra Kvitova, this year's defending champion, was a bunch of nerves during her first round match against Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, in their first round match today.  Akgul lead in the first set, 40 before Kvitova went on to win the next six games, to win the first set.  Petra started to find her groove in the second set and led throughout, finally closing it out at 64. 

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Wimbledon Day 1: Five Matches I'm Looking Forward to - Williams,Venus vs. Amanmuradova

I haven't seen Venus Williams play in ages so I'm really excited to see her play tomorrow.  Her opponent is no pushover though, as I've been hearing about Akgul Amanmuradova for sometime now.  She's a very competent player but hasn't really made too much dent in the rankings even up to now, and has usually languished in the lower part of the Top 100 for years now.  She should give Venus a good workout but Venus should prevail in two sets.

WTA Rankings Watch: September 13, 2010

It's the week after a Grand Slam and surely, there is a lot of movement within the Top 100, due mainly to players who did well in last week's US Open.  Let's see who they are.

 Vera Zvonareva, runner up to Kim Clijsters is the biggest mover within the Top 10, reaching a career high of #4.  Venus Williams also climbs a notch back to #3 due to her semi-final appearance.  There is a reentry in the Top 10 as we welcome back, Elena Dementieva, to #10.  She reached the 4th round, losing to Stosur.

 Within the Top 50, the biggest mover was quarterfinalist, Dominika Cibulkova, who jumps from #45 to #33.  Although she lost to Wozniacki, it was still surprising to see the diminutive player beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in the preceding round.  Her tenacious brand of play is really reaping her dividends. 

In the Top 100, Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic is the biggest climber, moving 19 notches from #97 to #78.  Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan is the second biggest climber, moving 18 notches from 78 to #60.  She reached the 2nd round where she lost to Kanepi.  Coming in second is Austrian Sybille Bammer who climbs from #85 to #69, a 16 notch jump!  Bammer loses to Dementieva in the second round. 

Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei climbed 13 spots from 77 to 64.  However, she is still not the highest-ranked Asian.  That distinction still belongs to Kimiko Date Krumm, currently at #50. Yung Jan-Chan reached the 3rd round, losing to Wozniacki.   

There are four re-entries into the Top 100, #94 - Zuzana Ondraskova of the Czech Republic, Pauline Parmentier of France #97, Varvara Lepchenko of the USA re-enters at #98 and Edina Gallovits of Romania touches base at #100.