WTA Women's Tennis Rankings as of May 21, 2012

The WTA women's tennis rankings as of May 21, 2012 is of significance because it will determine the French Open 2012 seeds. There were two movements in the top 10. Madrid winner and Rome semi-finalist Serena Williams moved up to no. 5 bumping Samantha Stosur down to no. 6. French Open 2011 champion Na Li who lost to Maria Sharapova in the Rome finals moves two spots ahead with a no. 7 ranking, while former world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki continues her fall down the rankings going a spot down to the no. 9 spot.

The movement of Li and Wozniacki is significant as the no. 9 seed can meet any of the top five players as early as the fourth round. It may also be the first time in history that a previous top-seeded player in a previous grand slam has slid down into being seeded no. 9 in the next grand slam. Wozniacki was ranked world no. 1 and top-seeded in this year's Australian Open before current world no. 1 Victoria Azarenka took over the top spot. Wozniacki failed to defend any of the tournaments she won last year and has reached only one final this year - at the Copenhagen tournament where she lost to Angelique Kerber of Germany.

Speaking of Kerber, the Rome semi-finalist to the top 10 for the first time in her career. She is now the top-ranked German overtaking world no. 12 Sabine Lisicki. In terms of French Open seeding, Rome quarterfinalist Dominika Cibulkova moved one rank higher to no. 16 and will avoid meeting top players until the round of 16. She overtook Russian Maria Kirilenko who moved down one spot to no. 17. With all top players expected to attend Roland Garros, the no. 32 seed will most likely be given to German Mona Barthel. Check below for the full list of the WTA top 35 players.

WTA Women's Tennis Rankings as of May 21, 2012

1 Azarenka, Victoria BLR 9020
2 Sharapova, Maria RUS 8390
3 Radwanska, Agnieszka POL 7080
4 Kvitova, Petra CZE 6275
5 Williams, Serena USA 5695
6 Stosur, Samantha AUS 5440
7 Li, Na CHN 4965
8 Bartoli, Marion FRA 4870
9 Wozniacki, Caroline DEN 4586
10 Kerber, Angelique GER 3560
11 Zvonareva, Vera RUS 3440
12 Lisicki, Sabine GER 3012
13 Ivanovic, Ana SRB 2975
14 Schiavone, Francesca ITA 2940
15 Petkovic, Andrea GER 2921
16 Cibulkova, Dominika SVK 2635
17 Kirilenko, Maria RUS 2475
18 Hantuchova, Daniela SVK 2355
19 Vinci, Roberta ITA 2320
20 Pennetta, Flavia ITA 2315
21 Jankovic, Jelena SRB 2260
22 Safarova, Lucie CZE 2215
23 Errani, Sara ITA 2050
24 Pavlyuchenkova, Anastasia RUS 2021
25 Kanepi, Kaia EST 1980
26 Cetkovska, Petra CZE 1955
27 Goerges, Julia GER 1945
28 Kuznetsova, Svetlana RUS 1931
29 Petrova, Nadia RUS 1850
30 Peng, Shuai CHN 1800
31 Medina Garrigues, Anabel ESP 1775
32 Barthel, Mona GER 1762
33 Zheng, Jie CHN 1730
34 Niculescu, Monica ROU 1715
35 McHale, Christina USA 1611

The WTA Women's tennis rankings is taken from the official WTATOUR.com website.