Serena Williams: Will She Ever Be WTA Number 1 Again? Part 1
In the past few years, American tennis pro Serena Williams has become intricately tied to the notion of the WTA’s Number 1 player. Every time the 29-year-old is dethroned from the top spot, critics and fans are quick to launch an outcry against the new Top
player, defaming her as an “untrue” champion, and Serena seems to make remarkable recoveries to regain her “rightful” position as World Number 1 player.
It’s no wonder that Serena Williams has built herself a reputation which makes it impossible for many spectators to picture any other player as the Number 1 while she is still in the game; the American pro has 13 Grand Slam titles to her name, and her playing
style is strong and powerful enough to justify the speculation about her being the best tennis player ever on the WTA. Hence it’s not difficult to see why, if she’s not the Number 1 player, many fans and critics have some doubt about the authenticity of the
ranking system.
Although this may come as a surprise to some people, the fact of the matter is that Serena Williams, in all her greatness, has only been World Number 1 for a total of 123 weeks, combined. To put this into perspective, let’s consider the records of some other
players: Justine Henin’s record is six weeks less than Serena’s, Lindsay Davenport is 25 weeks behind, and Serena herself is almost a 100 weeks behind Martina Hingis, and these records don’t bring Steffi Graf, Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova into the picture.
This year, Serena Williams has only played in six tournaments: the Medibank International, the Australian Open, the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, the French Open and Wimbledon. Despite of her minimal appearances, her talent
is unquestionable; winning two majors out of three played is no small feat. However, as a consequence of the small amount of matches played, Williams has lost her World Number 1 ranking as of October. Now, she rests at World Number 4. She is, without a doubt,
the standard for the last decade as the most dominating player, but will she be able to keep that prestigious position? Even more importantly, will she ever become World Number 1 again?
It is a question in which there is every room for doubt; her re-ascension as the top player on the Women’s Tennis Association is starting to look more impossible with every ranking that she drops. Let’s consider her prowess against that of the three players
who are currently above her on the rankings: Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva and Kim Clijsters.
As the new World Number 1, Caroline Wozniacki is currently tennis’s Golden Girl. She has had her best year in 2010; although she fell short of the mark in the US Open and the WTA Championship, she managed to redeem her performance with victories at three
Premier tournaments and two other events. The good news for Woz is, since she came up short in the first half of the year, she has plenty of points to gain from the get-go. On the other hand, Serena only has points to defend during this half of the year, with
both Grand Slams. Therefore, it will be difficult for Serena to catch up to the 20-year-old Dane until the latter half of the season, where Wozniacki’s titles lie and Serena has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
In this case, why is it impossible for Serena to regain World Number 1? For one simple reason, age. The player will be turning 30, a whopping figure in the world of tennis where age is everything. It’s a difficult adjustment for any champion, especially
one who has been ripped up several times due to injuries.
The second half of this feature discusses Wozniacki, Zvonareva, Clijsters and World Number 6 Sam Stosur with respect to their chances against Williams in the coming year.
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