Serena Williams Finally Re-Ascends to #1
by Ben Rothenberg on Oct 6, 2009 6:55 AM EDT
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After almost half-a-year of players and experts alike crying foul over the WTA ranking system, the undisputed best player in women's tennis is back on top of the charts.
Serena Williams will move into the #1 ranking on Monday for the fourth time, after beating Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the China Open in Beijing.
But this really isn't about Serena.
It can probably be said that no one is happier to see Serena ascend to #1 than the player relinquishing the title. Dinara Safina has been ranked #1 for 25 weeks (more than twice as long as Venus Williams has held the distinction), and has looked utterly miserable the entire time. It was never her fault that the system ranked her #1, but Safina was made the object of criticism for months as a slamless #1.
Outside of making the French Open final and winning a few clay court warm-up tournaments shortly before that, Safina did little to justify her #1 ranking. She made the semfiinals of Wimbledon, but once there won only one game in a mind-bogglingly lopsided drubbing at the hands of Venus Williams.
Since losing the Cincinnati final to Jelena Jankovic, Safina had been utterly atrocious. She struggled mightily and publicly against unworthy opponents at the US Open, finally losing to #81 Petra Kvitova after nearly losing twice before.
The nightmare only got worse as she moved on to Asia. She lost in the first round of Tokyo to qualifier Kai-Chen Chang, then lost in the second round of Beijing yesterday to wild card Zhang Shuai, #226 in the WTA rankings. Zhang became the worst-ranked player a WTA #1 had ever lost to, the last dubious distinction of Safina's reign at #1. It's as if the nightmare had gotten so bad that the numbers finally decided to let her wake up.
Serena reclaiming the #1 ranking in no way means that the ranking system is in anyway more effective than it was during Safina's reign. As they say, even a broken clock is occasionally right. The calls to reform the system will likely die down, but they should be no less urgent. Who knows who will be made into the next slamless #1 punching bag?
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Now lets all just stuff a Tennis Ball down are throats!
Sorry I don’t care if it is Ranked #1, she has always been RANK in my book. And for the ones who say it has more money than I have great but money doesn’t buy class, it’s earned.
Paul D. Kelley
It's not about doing your job, But can you do it with a TENNIS BALL in your throat!
by so.cal.native1952 on Oct 7, 2009 3:04 PM EDT reply actions
Who doesn’t lose it every once in a while? It was extreme but still who doesn’t get like that sometimes? One reason its played up is because she is high profile of course but her image is shes a polite and exuberant fun-loving person. That along with the image of tennis and couple in the fact that shes a woman and you get 4 days of coverage. The media played it up as much as they could even overshadowing Delpo and Kim thats what they do.
Money to me usually complicates things as well. More money more problems is quoted too often but its true. And her job is in the spotlight and you have expectations from a lot of people that are pretty big.
In the end shes worked to get the rank which is what its about. People for years have been praising both the Williams sisters attitude and class. In one tournament they came into people from the crowd shouted racial slurs at the family. They came from hitting tennis balls on a wall to dominating the tour. And being some of the most physically impressive female athletes in sports.
The whole apology thing I thought was funny why does anyone expect someone to apologize right after the fact. I don’t know many people who were mad at someone or in an argument who immediately went around and apologized. Because then either you’re gonna think they’re bipolar or its insincere in the first place.
She apologized to the ump or line judge and thats good shes apologized to the public probably 3 times. And from mandatory shoots/practices/tournaments and other public obligations she has been great for I’m not sure 12 years now maybe?
People say “This shows what shes really about when things go wrong”. But they forget the infamous Capriati match which was a call that rivaled this one maybe and Serena was great during and after the match. They forget about her sister being shot to death and soon after Serena struggling with injuries and juggling other activities to only come back and then win multiple Slams. She was even still criticized by people like Mary Carillo for “not devoting herself to tennis enough” through that stretch. And some think shes just been given this but it takes work and I think that also takes character.
The funniest thing was hearing some people in the media complain that her outburst overshadowed the champions of the US Open this year. While they took at least half their time talking about her instead of the champions.
Or like one guy said Serena was spoiled because of it. Even though his job is to judge famous athletes through a microscope. And he himself actually got thrown down by a NFL QB many years earlier trying to get a spark for his own show by calling him a womans name.
My thing is its overblown its one moment lets talk about it and say it was wrong for a bit and move on to me. Shes been great for tennis more than just her playing and they’re lucky to have her on the tour.
This moment doesn’t define her as a person or player its pretty graphic and she was wrong without a doubt but no way would it be that huge. I think to say that would be actually putting her on a pedestal and knocking her down at the same time.
by Camry on Oct 8, 2009 4:45 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
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