Li moves to No. 4 in tennis rankings

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., June 6 (UPI) -- Li Na jumped to a career-best No. 4 ranking in women's tennis in the aftermath of her French Open championship.

Li defeated defending champion Francesca Schiavone in three sets Saturday and became the first Chinese player to win a Grand Slam singles championship. Li, who was the runner-up at this year's Australian Open, improved to No. 4 in the rankings, up three spots from her pretournament ranking.

While the French Open's top three women's seeds failed to advance deep into the tournament, interestingly they were the only Top 10 players not to change their ranking in the wake of the event. Caroline Wozniacki, with 9,915 points, tops the rankings with Kim Clijsters (8,215) in second and Vera Zvonareva (7,935). Li has 6,475 points.

Victoria Azarenka, with 5,920, is down one spot to fifth and semifinalist Maria Sharapova (5,221) is up two to No. 6. Schiavone (4,646) slipped two places to seventh.

Petra Kvitova (4,018) moved from ninth to No. 8 and Marion Bartoli (3,740), who was the fourth semifinalist, matched her career-high ranking, previously reached in October 2007, by moving to ninth. Samantha Stosur (3,405), the 2010 French Open runner-up dropped four places to 10th.

Jelena Jankovic fell to 15th, dropping out of the Top 10. Also of note, Serena Williams is now 25th and Venus Williams is 32nd. Neither has played much in the last year because of injuries.