The WTA February 14, 2011 rankings marks the 4th time that Belgian Kim Clijsters is at the top of the tennis world and she has set several records in doing so. The current US Open and Australian Open title holder reached the finals of the Paris Open over the weekend to earn enough ranking points to overcome previous #1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. This week’s rankings are historic because of the following facts:
- Clijsters is the first mother in history to be ranked as #1 women’s tennis player.
- She tied Justine Henin as the only other Belgian player to achieve the #1 ranking 4 times.
- She rose to #1 after being un-ranked in August 2009, the shortest span that an un-ranked player reached #1 in both the ATP and WTA rankings.
- She was last ranked #1 in March 20, 2006 – a gap of 256 weeks. This gap in stint at the top is second only to Serena Williams’ 265 weeks.
Clijsters’ is now on her 20th career week as #1 player in the world, she’s currently at 12th place in this area. She is behind but may be able to catch up with #11 Tracy Austin – 21 weeks; #10 Dinara Safina – 26 weeks; and, #9 Amelie Mauresmo – 39 weeks. #8 Lindsay Davenport has 98 career weeks, and Clijsters will have to hold the #1 spot for more than a year to overtake her. This will not be easy considering that Wozniacki has two chances to grab back the #1 spot in the next two weeks. She is playing in the DUBAI and DOHA tournaments while Clijsters is not entered in both. Watch Kim Clijster’s message to her fans after the jump.
Other Notable Ranking Movers:
Jelena Dokic of Australia led 3 players into the top100 this week by posting a quarterfinal showing at the Paris Open where she lost to Kim Clijsters. She rose 29 places from #120 to #91, and posts the biggest jump amongst those in the top 100. In the top 20, Paris Open winner – Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic was the biggest mover jumping 4 spots from #18 to a career high #14. Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand had the biggest ranking drop in the top 100 rankings this week. She went down 25 places from #70 to #95.
Russia Dominates Top 100:
Ten different countries are again represented in the top ten this week with players from Belgium, Denmark, Russia, Italy, Australia, United States, China, Serbia, Belarus and Poland ranked from #1 to #10. Russia has 4 players in the Top 20 followed by the Italy, the United States and Serbia with 2 each. In the top 100 – Russia is #1 with 14 players, followed by the Czech Republic with 9 players, and the US with 7 players. Spain has 6 players in the top 100, while Romania, Italy and France have 5 each.
Watch Kim Clijster’s interview after getting back to the #1 ranking:
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