Bulgaria's Pironkova Climbs to No. 33 in Tennis Ranking

At the end of June, Tsvetana Pironkova, became the first ever Bulgarian tennis player to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's best female tennis player, Tsvetana Pironkova, has climbed the rankings to a new career-high of No 33 in the world on the back of her success at the Wimbledon tournament in June.

The breakthrough performance of the 22-year-old Bulgarian, who turned from a huge underdog into a surprise semi-finalist, helped her jump up by a whopping 49 spots in the ranking with 1 690 points total. Her best ranking before Wimbledon was No.40 in June, 2008.

The leaders is still American Serena Williams with 8 475 points, followed by Serbia's Jelena Jankovic with 5 900 points while Serena's sister Venus is third with 5 660 points.

In the World Tennis Association (WTA) “money leaders” ranking, Pironkova is 24th by earning USD 505 118 for the season and Serena Williams is still first with USD 4.27 M.

Five-time champion Venus Williams suffered a shocking 6-2, 6-3 defeat against Pironkova in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon at the end of June .

This was the second time in three matches that the 22-year-old has defeated Williams, who also lost to her in the first round at the 2006 Australian Open. Pironkova had never moved past the second round in 18 previous Grand Slam appearances and is the first ever Bulgarian player to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals..

Bulgaria's best male tennis player, Grigor Dimitrov, is ranked 292.

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