Wimbledon champion Halep returns to top 5

Djokovic continues to lead ATP Rankings

Newly crowned Wimbledon champion Simona Halep returned to the top five in the updated Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings.

The Romanian was in fourth spot with 5933 points in the table that is led byAustralia's Ashleigh Barty with 6605 points. The top five also include Naomi Osaka (2), Karolina Pliskova (3), Kiki Bertens (5).

The 27-year-old Halep first broke in the top five in 2014 and continued to stay there before moving down to the eighth spot in 2016. She bounced back gracefully, acquiring the apex position in 2017 before again falling to number five earlier this year.

Halep clawed up and settled at number four following her brilliant and successful campaign at Wimbledon.

During the tournament, she had come close matches but managed to come out with flying colours.

She overcame a 2-5 second set deficit against Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first round, went down in the second set and made a solid comeback against Mihaela Buzarnescu in the second round.

In the third and fourth rounds, Halep defeated Victoria Azarenka and 15-year-old Coco Gauff in straight sets, respectively. Halep suffered a 1-4 deficit in the first set against Zhang Shuai in the quarter-finals but regained her momentum. She then went onto hand straight sets defeat to Elina Svitolina in the semi-final and Serena Williams in the final, respectively.

Halep, the 2018 French Open champion, became the first Romanian to win women's singles title at Wimbledon. She also became the 10th active multiple-Slam winner as she equalled Victoria Azarenka, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Petra Kvitova, Garbine Muguruza and Naomi Osaka.

Tennis stars Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova and Angelique Kerber are the only players who have won more titles.

Meanwhile, in the ATP Rankings, there has been no change in the top three spots with Novak Djokovic continuing to lead the charts with 12415 points.

With this, Djokovic has passed Rafael Nadal in the battle for year-end No. 1 with the 2nd-ranked Spaniard having 7945 points. Roger Federer is in third spot with 7460 points.