Russia’s Dinara Safina, who will replace Serena Williams as world No. 1 later this month despite never having won a Grand Slam title, insists she will prove she belongs on top of the rankings.
The 22-year-old Safina, whose brother Marat was the men’s top player in the world in 2000, will replace Williams, who has been on top for 11 consecutive weeks, and 72 in all, on April 20.
“There’s no question that while I am very proud of my results over the past year, I would have liked to reach this achievement in a different manner,” said Safina, the runner-up to the American at the Australian Open this year.
PHOTO: AFP
“I hope to prove to everyone over the coming months that I merit the honor of being world No. 1,” she said.
Safina is only the second Russian woman, along with Maria Sharapova, to hold the top spot.
Her elevation was announced just after Williams suffered a shock 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 first-round defeat against world No. 95 Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic in the first round of the Andalucia Tennis Championships in Marbella, Spain.
Over the past year, Safina has won four WTA Tour singles titles — Montreal, Los Angeles, Berlin and Tokyo and was runner-up five times, including the Australian Open and Roland Garros.
She was also a silver medalist at the Beijing Olympics.
Meanwhile, Williams slumped to defeat in her first claycourt outing of the season handing her Czech opponent a first win over a top 10 player since 2003.
Williams had been beaten in the final of the Miami hardcourt event on Sunday when her performance against Victoria Azarenka was severely hampered by a thigh injury which required heavy strapping.
The 26-year-old Zakopalova, a top 30 player in 2006, had only won two of her matches on tour this year before this week.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures