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It's Not So Lonely at the Top

© Michael Cecilio

The current world #1 player is Martina Hingis, the five-time Grand Slam champion and already a three-time winner on tour this year. However, many believe that she is simply the #1 player on the computer and not the #1 player where it counts the most - on the tennis court. Given that Venus Williams has two Grand Slams on her 52-week record while Martina has just one Grand Slam final to her name in the same period, the honour of the #1 ranking is in question. Is Venus Williams the true #1 player?

There is no doubting that Venus has recorded the most exceptional results over the past 52 weeks. Not only does she have the Wimbledon and US Open crowns but she has the Olympic Gold Medal, and five other WTA titles to her record. In the past 52 weeks, Venus leads Martina 4-1 in head-to-head matches, 3-1 versus Lindsay Davenport (the current #3), 1-0 versus Jennifer Capriati (the current #4) and 3-0 versus Monica Seles (the current #5). Compare those statistics with Martina's who stands at 2-2 against Davenport, 2-2 versus Capriati and 3-0 versus Seles. While Venus's results are worthy of the honour as the #1 player on the court, the honour of the true #1 (the computer #1) will lie with Martina until Venus can change a number of things.

Firstly, it must be said that as of this week, Venus only has a 700-odd points to gain on the #1 ranking - the closest that she has ever been in her career to date. Next week, she looks to fall a few points behind but can really make her assault on the ranking if she can do significantly better than Martina at Roland Garros and perhaps even backing that up with a run at Eastbourne, for example, before Wimbledon. If Venus wants any shot at reaching the pinnacle, she needs to act now as there are no more points to gain from Wimbledon due to the defence of all her ranking points gained from last year's run.

Had Venus decided to increase her schedule to at least the full 17 tournaments over the last 52 weeks (three more tournaments than her current schedule), there is no doubt in my mind that Venus would be the world #1 player as we speak. Injuries and non-tennis related commitments have prevented Venus from taking advantage of the 'more tournaments, more ranking points' system currently on offer on the WTA. However this is not such a bad thing, and full credit must go to Martina Hingis for being able to maintain her health and her consistency and taking advantage of playing a substantial number of tournaments in order to do what she can to keep that #1 ranking. It would seem that more important than winning Grand Slams is the maintenance of the #1 ranking. Aside from the 22 weeks that Lindsay Davenport maintained the #1 ranking, Martina has held the top ranking for the most part since March 1997 and being anything less than #1 is something she is not used to, would not get used to, and wouldn't like to get used to. Even as a junior, Martina was committed to being the best in her field and it is that same desire to be the best that her mother had tried to instill in her daughter from the very beginning.

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