*** “There’s no question that while I am very proud of my results over the past year, I would have liked to reach this achievement in a different manner. I hope to prove to everyone over the coming months that I merit the honor of being World No. 1.”***

ince and wise words. I hope she can win a slam this year.

April 9th, 2009 at 2:12 pm

Congratulations, Dinara Safina!

zola,

I completely agree.

April 9th, 2009 at 3:59 pm

yes, she has not won a slam and was mauled by Serena in aus final. but she is 2 times slam finalist+semi at US open+4 tier 1 titles..surely has earned it by working hard…so congrats, Dinara.

But I am confused here about the numbers. Safina played both amelia and Charleston last year and lost early. But Serena skipped amelia island and is defending Charleston. So only if she fails to show up or loose early at Charleston, she will loose any points. Yes, the point distribution has changed this year, but don’t think it should make up for 200 point difference they have right now…and WTA press release gives no details about these things.

April 9th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

tennisontherocks

indeed, serena has lots of points from Charleston. I don’t know how Safina is taking over. Has serena pulled out from Charleston? The news clips I read did not explain how this transition is possible. will be interesting to know.

April 9th, 2009 at 7:24 pm

It is silly to put that “warranted” with a question mark in the heading. Presumably the points system says Safina will get the top spot, and if so it’s not a question of warranted or unwarranted. It’s not someone’s opinion, like a score for artistic content in ice skating, it’s a points system. If we don’t like the results, let’s campaign for a change in the system, not talk as if it were something else. One expects that from ignorant people posting remarks, not from the staff writers.

April 10th, 2009 at 3:57 am

Colin: “If we don’t like the results, let’s campaign for a change in the system, not talk as if it were something else.”

Maybe this is precisely what that was intended to do. I doubt anyone has a problem with Safina’s response to reaching #1, so it has to be an argument against the system.

I happen to agree with the writer (ducking!). The points system doesn’t seem to be commensurate with what the players and fans care about. Safina is handling it a little better than Jankovic did, but it still…

BTW – here’s a link to the rankings – it’s byzantine, to say the least. I’d just reduce the points for all non-slam related tournaments by 25% and drop premier mandatory to 800 points.

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/3/global/includes/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/3/global/Pdfs/rankings/howitworks.pdf

April 10th, 2009 at 9:29 am

I think Colin has a point that it is not Safina or Jankovic’s fault if they reach No 1 without having any slams. It just shows how weak the WTA is right now.

Thanks MMT for the link to the WTA ranking system. To me it is not too different from the ATP. But perhaps WTA does not have the mandatory 1000 participation and I don’t know which ones are counted for the ranking. Perhaps it allows the players to accumulate and use points from smaller tournaments towards their rankings, whereas in ATP GSs and Mandatory masters are the biggest part of the point system.

So, yes, a change in the points and ranking system, can make WTA some good. but meanwhile, this is not a flaw for Safina or Jankovic. They did better than the others and congratulations to them.

April 10th, 2009 at 10:02 am

Well, I ‘m not too sure about “what the fans care about”. We mustn’t be too democratic here! If it were left to the “fans”, the extreme anti-Federer bunch would rank him about 500th, and then there would be all the folk who call Murray boring and say Nadal is just a “moonballer”.
I don’t even pretend to understand how the points system works, but then my maths teacher at school once remarked to me that I’d be the death of him. No doubt the system needs changing, but it must remain impersonal and arithmetical.

April 10th, 2009 at 10:51 am

remember that serena won three consecutive tournaments during this time last year (one in india, then miami then charleston)? this means that she has a lot of points to defend. problem was the tournament in india was moved due to security problems, and then she didn’t win miami this year.

April 11th, 2009 at 4:11 am

I am not going to pretend I understand or like the arguements about who is the number 1 player amongst the ladies…
I think the points system to reach number 1 indicates the most consistent player… not the best. I completely agree that you can not be a best player if you haven’t won a slam. Tennis players are graded / judged by the number of slams, then number of titles. Who really cares who is number 1? Serena has a point, she won all the slams and beat safina in most recent match.

May 5th, 2009 at 12:10 pm