[Desflahd]

OCTOBER 29, 2009

SERENA WILLIAMS SECURES SONY ERICSSON WTA TOUR YEAR-END WORLD NO.1 RANKING

28-year-old American will top year-end rankings for second time in her career
DOHA, QATAR - After a season-long battle for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour No.1 ranking, Serena Williams will conclude the 2009 season as the top ranked singles player in the world, the Tour announced today. When the new rankings are released on Monday, November 2, 2009, Williams will emerge as the new World No.1, replacing Russia’s Dinara Safina. Williams recaptures the No.1 ranking at the Sony Ericsson Championships – Doha 2009, following Safina’s opening match retirement and Williams’ opening round win against Svetlana Kuznetsova. Williams will hold the World No.1 ranking at least through the week of December 28, 2009.

It will mark the fifth time in Serena’s career (third time in 2009) that she will be World No.1, having held the top ranking for 57 weeks from July 8, 2002 to August 10, 2003; four weeks from September 8, 2008 to October 6, 2008; 11 weeks from February 2 to April 19, 2009, and two weeks from October 12 to October 25, 2009. Williams will conclude the season as the top-ranked player for the second time in her career, having previously been ranked No.1 at the end of 2002. As a result, she will increase her career total to 83 weeks as the top ranked player. Williams is currently competing at the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in both singles and doubles (with Venus Williams).

“2009 has been a truly memorable season for me during which I enjoyed some of the biggest wins of my career,” said Serena Williams. “Capturing the year-end World No.1 ranking is a huge accomplishment for me and I am thrilled that all the hard work has paid off.”

“I congratulate Serena on having a great year and achieving one of her goals by finishing the season as the World No.1 player,” said Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. “Serena is a terrific ambassador for our sport.”

Aldo Liguori, Sony Ericsson Corporate VP and Head of Global Communications & PR, said: “We are delighted to congratulate Serena on this great accolade. Finishing the season ranked Sony Ericsson WTA Tour No.1 for the second time in her career is a tremendous achievement and we look forward to seeing Serena have an even better 2010 season.”

The 28-year-old American has had a stellar 2009 season, winning two Grand Slam singles titles (Australian Open and Wimbledon) and posting solid results at the other two Grand Slams, falling to eventual champions at both (to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros and to Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the US Open). A finalist at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Williams has 10 wins over Top 10 opponents this season. In addition to her success in singles, Williams has also won four doubles titles this year with Venus Williams, including three Grand Slams (Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open) as well as the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

Williams is the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour 2009 prize money leader with $4,623,711 (through week of October 26, 2009) and is on the verge of becoming the second player in Tour history to eclipse the $5 million single-season mark (Justine Henin, 2007). In February of 2009, Williams surpassed Lindsay Davenport ($22,144,735) as the all-time prize money leader on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Williams turned professional at the age of fourteen in November 1995 and played her first tournament in Quebec City, Canada. In her 14-year career she has won every major title at least once for a total of 11 Grand Slam singles titles, becoming only the fifth woman, other than Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Steffi Graf, to achieve such a feat. Of the current players, only Serena’s older sister Venus comes close to such an achievement, with seven Grand Slam singles titles to her name. Williams has won four titles at the Australian Open (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009), three at Wimbledon (2002, 2003, 2009), three at the US Open (1999, 2002, 2008), and one at Roland Garros (2002). In addition, Williams has won two Olympic Gold medals, playing doubles with Venus in Sydney in 2000 and again at Beijing in 2008, and is the owner of 34 singles and 17 doubles titles.

Steffi Graf (GER) August 17, 1987 337
Martina Navratilova (TCH/USA) July 10, 1978 332
Chris Evert (USA) November 3, 1975 260
Martina Hingis (SUI) March 31, 1997 209
Monica Seles (YUG/USA) March 11, 1991 178
Justine Henin (BEL) October 20, 2003 117
Lindsay Davenport (USA) October 12, 1998 98
Serena Williams (USA) July 8, 2002 83**
Amélie Mauresmo (FRA) September 13, 2004 39
Dinara Safina (RUS) April 20, 2009 25
Tracy Austin (USA) April 7, 1980 21
Kim Clijsters (BEL) August 11, 2003 19
Jelena Jankovic (SRB) August 11, 2008 18
Jennifer Capriati (USA) October 15, 2001 17
Maria Sharapova (RUS) August 22, 2005 17
Ana Ivanovic (SRB) June 9, 2008 12
Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario (ESP) February 6, 1995 12
Venus Williams (USA) February 25, 2002 11
Evonne Goolagong Cawley (AUS) April 26, 1976 2
* Total weeks at No.1; can be non-consecutive
** Includes the World No.1 ranking through week of December 28, 2009

[Peretool]

Steffi Graf was #1 for 377 weeks not 337.

[YpbWF5Yo]

Steffi Graf was #1 for 377 weeks not 337.

This was released by the WTA I think.

[ASSESTYTEAH]

Well done, Serena. I am glad to see the real number 1 also be the computer number 1 at the end of the season.

[cemDrymnVem]

"...In her 14-year career she has won every major title at least once for a total of 11 Grand Slam singles titles, becoming only the fifth woman, other than Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Steffi Graf, to achieve such a feat...."

I guess Mo Connolly's calendar year real Grand Slam in 1953 doesn't count. Or does the WTA only look at the Open era for it's information.

[cigattIcTot]

The 28-year-old American has had a stellar 2009 season...

I dunno about all that...

[staisacic]

"...In her 14-year career she has won every major title at least once for a total of 11 Grand Slam singles titles, becoming only the fifth woman, other than Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Steffi Graf, to achieve such a feat...."

I guess Mo Connolly's calendar year real Grand Slam in 1953 doesn't count. Or does the WTA only look at the Open era for it's information.

There have been others. BJK, Doris Hart, Shirley Fry......

[attackDoold]

I'm glad that this is going to happen with Serena playing excellent and passionate tennis at a non-slam, non-Miami event. Good for her. Good for Dinara. Good for tennis.

[beneitpedro]

Thank whoever deity supervises tennis, now the commentators stop whining.

[cigattIcTot]

I'm glad that this is going to happen with Serena playing excellent and passionate tennis at a non-slam, non-Miami event. Good for her. Good for Dinara. Good for tennis.

[ElisasAUG]

There is a huge gap between Serena's 83 weeks and Amelie's 39 weeks.

[pouslytut]

There is a huge gap between Serena's 83 weeks and Amelie's 39 weeks.

And Justine's 117 weeks and Monica's 178 weeks. I wonder if anyone will be able to fill that gap?

TA

[ASSESTYTEAH]

It's laughable that Ana is above Arantxa and Venus. It's downright disgusting that Dinara is not only above all three of them, but also Tracy, Kim, Capriati, and Maria.

[loikrso]

It's laughable that Ana is above Arantxa and Venus. It's downright disgusting that Dinara is not only above all three of them, but also Tracy, Kim, Capriati, and Maria.

Consider me shocked. Seriously.

[ElisasAUG]

I was seriously shocked at how few weeks Venus was at #1.

[gardenerextraordinaire]

I was seriously shocked at how few weeks Venus was at #1.

It's Serena's fault.

[Peretool]

What's with the faux outrage in this thread? There are plenty of underachievers as far as holding on to the #1 ranking (Austin, Clijsters, Capriati, Sharapove, and Venus) and plenty of over achievers (Mauresmo, ASV, Safina, JJ, Ivanovic, and Goolagong) on the list. At least Safina, JJ, and Ivanovic have time to justify their name being on this list.

[ASSESTYTEAH]

What's faux about the outrage when Safina has more weeks at #1 than a 4 time Slam champion? Let alone a 7 time Slam winner?

[Automobill]

What's faux about the outrage when Safina has more weeks at #1 than a 4 time Slam champion? Let alone a 7 time Slam winner?

It's not right to look at it like that. Those two were in their primes during the era of even better players.

[Peretool]

What's faux about the outrage when Safina has more weeks at #1 than a 4 time Slam champion?

I don't see how that is Safina's fault. Perhaps if the 4 time Slam champion strung together a more consistent year or had not played in the Graf/Seles era, things could be different. Again, not the fault of Safina.

As Thomas Muster once famously said, "I did not buy my points at the supermarket".

Any merit system will have faults if stretched to the edges, and that is simply what we had this year. Serena didn't do anything outside the slams and Safina made two slam finals and won a few WTA tournaments.

The ranking system isn't nearly as broken as some would believe, we just had a year of a lot of anomalies. That's all. Hardly reason to be outraged.