Washington - Upi
Petra Kvitova claims a career-best world No. 3 ranking in women\'s tennis, which moves to the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships this week. Kvitova switches places with Victoria Azarenka, even though Azarenka won the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open. Azarenka is fourth in the rankings. However, Azarenka was the defending champion at the Kremlin Cup (won Sunday by Dominika Cibulkova) where the title is worth 470 rankings points compared to the 280 she received for winning at Luxembourg. That gives her a net loss of 190 points this week. Li Na goes from seventh to fifth this week, knocking Vera Zvonareva to sixth and Samantha Stosur to seventh in other changes in the Top 10. The eight highest ranked women are in Istanbul for the WTA Championships, which begins round-robin play Tuesday. No. 1-ranked Carolina Wozniacki, Kvitova, Zvonareva and eighth-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska will compete in the Red Group while world No. 2 Maria Sharapova, Azarenka, Li and Stosur are in the White Group. Marion Bartoli is ninth in the rankings and Andrea Petkovic is 10th. Cibulkova went from 20th to 17th in the rankings with the Kremlin Cup title. It was her first WTA championship. Serena Williams moves to 12th from 14th this week and defending WTA Championships winner Kim Clijsters, who is injured, slips to 13th.