for 2008.  Given the dominance by Russian women for the past several years, it is a little surprising that Safina is only the second Russian woman to hold the top spot (Maria Sharapova is the other one).  Dinara also becomes the second member of her family to assume the Number One ranking because her brother, Marat Safin, was previously ranked Number One on the ATP World Tour.  In the pasty twelve months, Safina reached the finals of the 2008 French Open and the 2009 Australian Open and also won four Tour titles, i.e. the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin (last May), the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles, the Rogers Cup in Montréal (last summer) and the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo (last fall).  In 2008, Safina also became the first player ever to beat three different reigning Number One ranked players in the same season, i.e. Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic.  Safina will become the nineteenth Number One ranked player ever following in the footsteps of a glittering list of current and former tennis stars, i.e. Chris Evert, Evonne Goolagong, Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Amélie Mauresmo, Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic.  Dinara has a lot of ranking points to defend in the next couple months and will need to improve on her performance during the past three months when she has gone 14-5 if she wants to retain the Number one ranking.

Posted by TC at 01:37 PM |