Serena guaranteed YE #1 ranking

[Sundaymorningguy]

I think of the Top 3 Serena has the least for the first half of the year until Miami. She has 3090 to defend between now and Miami. 1500 YEC, 470 Brisbane, 500 Australian Open and 620 in Doha. Where things get tough for her is Miami-French Open a grand total of 5370 points to defend.

 

[kskate2]

Serena is at 156 weeks, Monica is at 178 weeks, those 22 weeks take us well into the next year before Serena catches Monica.

I wonder how many points Serena has to defend between now and after AO 2014.

WTF W - 1500
Brisbane W - 470
AO QF - 500
Doha F - 620
Miami W - 1000
Chas W - 470
Madrid W - 1000
Rome W - 900
RG W - 2000
Wimby R16 - 280
Bastad W - 280
Toronto W - 900
Cinci F - 650
USO W - 2000

 

[ozza]

I think of the Top 3 Serena has the least for the first half of the year until Miami. She has 3090 to defend between now and Miami. 1500 YEC, 470 Brisbane, 500 Australian Open and 620 in Doha. Where things get tough for her is Miami-French Open a grand total of 5370 points to defend.

Things aren't exactly tough for her. Realistically she's virtually guaranteed the number 1 until at least the French Open, and things would have to go pretty south for her to even lose it by then.

Azarenka clearly doesn't care about chasing Serena for number 1 (it's a pointless exercise) and Sharapova isn't even playing atm and has pretty much her entire ranking to defend between now and the French Open.

 

[toshiroh]

Serena is guaranteed to pass Seles. That's already confirmed. You just need to do the math.

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

It's really difficult to do the math until after the YEC.
What if Serena gets injured and can't play the YEC?
Look at Masha!

 

[kskate2]

I've already provided the points through next year's USO. If she doesn't play another match this year you would deduct 1500 points from the tour championships.

 

[ozza]

I don't know why Serena fans care about the number of weeks she spends at #1. Her route to greatness is the number of grand slams she wins, not how long she spends at #1.

 

[Sundaymorningguy]

I don't think anyone is disputing the number of slams means more period, but having the weeks at number 1 to go along with that piece is always nice. Every little bit helps when you are building your legacy.

 

[ozza]

I think the issue is that number of weeks at number 1 isn't a true measure of greatness. Serena has been the best player in the world a lot longer than the number of weeks she has been at number 1. Those years she was winning 2 grand slams a year, but not finishing the year number 1, you'd take that every single time. The rankings might have said she wasn't the best player in the world, but at the end of the day that doesn't really matter, everyone deep down knows she was.

The other issue is Serena is never going to catch the top hitters in this list. She's going to catch Seles, probably going to catch Hingis, Evert will be tougher. Navratilova and Graf next to no chance.

But I don't need to look at weeks at number 1 to decide who was the best, it's just a minor factor in the equation.

Her grand slam record and her record vs her peers will always be Serena's overriding greatest achievements.

 

[Sundaymorningguy]

I understand what you are saying. I am just saying it doesn't hurt to have that as an added bonus.

 

[RJD11]

I don't know why Serena fans care about the number of weeks she spends at #1. Her route to greatness is the number of grand slams she wins, not how long she spends at #1.

I know weeks at No 1 mean little nowadays but now

that so many pundits and other experts are saying

She is the GOAT, her detractors are making a big

deal about the former greats weeks at No 1. We all

know ( as well as the detractors ) that for many

years She has been the best player, just not on paper.

That is why all those Slamless No 1s etal had such a rough

time with their top ranking. They were constantly being

questioned about the legitimacy of their rank when

Serena was clearly the best player. The blame goes to

the WTA and their Williams rules.

 

[RJD11]

Serena

On where she goes from Beijing..."I'm going to France. I don't want to go back to the USA because it's too far to travel to the USA and then back to Europe. So I'm going directly to France and training. Istanbul is an indoor tournament, so I'm going to train indoors and get ready for hopefully five more matches this year I'm hoping to play."

On whether she has decided on what she's going to wear for the welcome party in Istanbul..."Actually, yes. It's funny you ask. Yes, I already have."

On whether this is the best year of her career..."Yes. it's definitely one of the best seasons I've had in my career. I don't know if it's the best - for me, winning three Grand Slams in one season is pretty amazing. And also winning two Grand Slams and two gold medals in one season is pretty amazing, too. So I think those are the top three of my career."


- See more at: http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/3483602/title/quotable-quotes-serena-williams#sthash.zbmVUTBs.dpuf

 

[RJD11]

Serena has nearly a 5000 point lead and over 13,000 points.


Are those records ?

 

[kskate2]

If it's not a record it has to be close to one. And she still has room to gain even more points at AO, Wimby and IW if she ever decided to play it again.

 

[RJD11]

If it's not a record it has to be close to one. And she still has room to gain even more points at AO, Wimby and IW if she ever decided to play it again.

kskate2, I think it is safe to say Serena won't be playing

IW next year.

 

[kskate2]

Yeah. I know she won't. Next year or any year for that matter.

 

[ozza]

I imagine the points is a record. But it's a flawed measure because they doubled the points when they brought in the road map in 2009. So a grand slam use to be worth 1000 points, it's now worth 2000 points etc. The ATP did this as well.

From next year the players are playing for less points overall under the new points distribution so it's going to be a tough record to dislodge. I imagine it would take 3 grand slams, because Serena's domination at tour level this year has been unprecedented. She won 5 of the tier I events, and she only played 7 of them.