Standing On Top Of The World

Eight months of running on the tennis treadmill that is the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour can provoke an abundance of aches and pains among players arriving in New York City for the U.S. Open — and that’s not the only condition confronting contenders for the season’s final Grand Slam crown.
 
There’s a pervasive case of competitive vertigo afflicting top players — ascending to the top spot has been an unsettling experience for the woman teetering on top of the world rankings.
 
In the past four months four different women — Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic —  have held the World No. 1 ranking.
 
Henin, who had held the top spot for 117 weeks, threw the hierarchy into disorder when she pulled the plug on her playing career by abruptly retiring in May making history as the first reigning World No. 1 to retire at the top. 
 
Sharapova started the season on a torrid tear in posting a 21-1 record and capturing titles in three of her first four tournaments, including the Australian Open, but she sustained a moderate tear in her rotator cuff tendon that will sideline her for the Open, snapping her streak of 23 straight Grand Slam tournament appearances.
 
Ivanovic, who could have taken over the No. 1 ranking immediately after Henin’s retirement, secured the top spot at the tender age of 20 two days after she captured her first major title at the French Open.  But the Serbian with the sparkling smile suffered from stage fright in her first tournament as No. 1, suffering a tearful third-round Wimbledon loss to Chinese wild card Jie Zheng.  She has won just one match since and was forced out of the Olympics with a right thumb injury.
 
"I was No. 2 when Justine Henin retired, and I had to play a tournament in Rome,"  Ivanovic says in recalling her first shot at the top spot. "I was so nervous and couldn't handle the pressure. So I lost the first round. I played terribly."
 
Jankovic succeeded fellow Serbian Ivanovic as the current No. 1 by backing into the top spot after Ivanovic’s second-round setback in Montreal earlier this month. 
 
"Since I was a young girl it has been my dream to become number one," Jankovic says. "When you get older at least one day you can say you were number one and no one can take that away from you."
 
Jankovic’s time at the top was limited – on Monday there was a Serbian switch as Ivanovic surpassed Jankovic to regain the top spot. She will open the US Open as the top seed against Russia’s Vera Dushevina.
 
Attaining the top spot is one thing, sustaining can be a much tougher task.
 
"It’s much easier to be the hunter than the hunted," says former World No. 1 Martina Hingis. "When you are No. 1 everyone wants to beat you and you’re always trying to protect your place."
 
Turnover at the top has been such a constant in recent months, you might have a better shot at predicting the landing point of a wayward whiffle ball dropped from the top of the Empire State Building in a wind storm than you’d have of predicting exactly who will wind up as World No. 1 this season. No less than five of the current top 10 —  Jankovic, Ivanovic, Sharapova, Wimbledon winner Venus Williams and Wimbledon finalist Serena Williams — have held reigned as No. 1 and all of those players, along with 2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who could have taken over the top by winning the French Open, and French Open finalist Dinara Safina, are capable of ending the year No. 1. As of August 22 less 271 points separated Ivanovic from fourth-ranked Serena Williams in the rankings.
 
"There's a very thin line between those numbers," Sharapova says.
 
The Grand Slam played in the city of sky scrapers may well determine who scales the summit and secures the season-ending top spot.
 
"The Williams sisters hadn't quite played up to par until Wimbledon, so maybe they'll step up to the plate and they'll be No. 1 and 2 at the end of the year, who knows?  We don't know who is going to be No. 1 at the end of the year which is great, but still, the level at the top is not where it will be or where it has been," says Martina Navratilova, one of only five women to hold the top spot in singles and doubles simultaneously. "Sharapova played the best tennis of her career at the Australian Open and she hasn't repeated. Then you have people like Kuznetsova, who has the capability but hasn't been able to step up to the plate at the big moments, either.  So it's just kind of, who's going to step up?  Somebody will, they just haven't yet."
 
The men's game has largely been a two-man show with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal combining to capture 13 of the last 14 Grand Slam titles. Only Novak Djokovic's victory at the Australian Open in January disrupted the Federer-Nadal major mastery.
 
In contrast, five different women — Serena Williams (2007 Australian Open), Henin (2007 French Open, U.S. Open), Venus Williams (2007-2008 Wimbledon),  Sharapova (2008 Australian Open) and Ivanovic (2008 French Open) — have raised title trophies in the last seven Grand Slam tournaments. Current No. 1 Jankovic is the first woman to rise to No. 1 without winning a major final since Amelie Mauresmo in 2004.

 
What does that tell you about the state of women’s tennis?
 
"It tells me we don’t have a dominant player in women’s tennis at this time," says Nick Bollettieri, who has coached 10 World No. 1 players. "I believe if Venus and Serena remain physically fit then they are the clear-cut favorites for the U.S. Open, but there is no clear-cut favorite for No. 1. You’ve got five or six girls who can contend. Times have changed and I don’t believe we will see a women’s World No. 1 for 30, 40, 50 weeks a year as we’ve seen in the past."
 
Competing with the (1) next to your name can be both a boost and a burden: life at the pinnacle of the sport imposes both powerful purpose and peak pressure.
 
"It was hard the first time I was playing a Grand Slam as number one in the world because I felt like everyone was waiting for me," Henin says. "If I won, it was normal and if I lost, what a surprise! When you’re at the top, it gives you a lot more confidence for sure. But it gives you a lot more pressure also. There are a lot of demands."
 
What’s in a number really?
 
Since the rankings are based on the preceding 52-week results the current ranking may not always accurately indicate the world’s best player.
 
"In the world of high level tennis, how you are playing now is vastly more important than how you played two months ago," says sport psychologist Dr. John F. Murray. "Certainly any player who achieves the world No. 1 ranking is entitled to it and should be very proud, but basking in the sun may prove to be short-lived, and further diminish confidence, when the accomplishment is earned through past performance and you know that you are not the strongest one out there. True legitimacy to the No. 1 crown is in how long a player is able to maintain supremacy. Gaining the top spot for a short time historically means a lot. You can always say that you stood at the peak as the best player in the planet once. But pride in attaining something for a brief period is not the same as the growing confidence that occurs when a player earns the top ranking on an upward swing, destroying all competition along the way."
 
Bollettieri believes legitimacy at the top can only come through major conquests.
 
"You’ve gotta put this in your article: in order to be a true No. 1 and win big tournaments you’ve gotta gain the respect of the rest of the top players by winning at the majors," Bollettieri says. "If you don’t have that respect then it’s gonna be tough to stay at the top. Watch out for Safina at the Open. I’ve gained a lot of respect for Safina because she’s playing full of confidence and you can’t count Kuznetsova out either."
 
If you accept the premise that players’ primary pursuits are playing for titles than etching their names in Grand Slam silverware is more of a priority for many than writing their name atop the rankings.
 
Has the No. 1 ranking —  like the dollar in the global economy —  became a devalued currency in the commercial world of professional sport?
 
Though she fell to older sister Venus in the Wimbledon final, in her mind Serena Williams is second to none —  even when speaking in the third person  —  regardless of her position in the rankings.
 
"Serena Williams, in my mind, has always been the best tennis player," has been Serena’s standard reply when asked about regaining No. 1. "It's just maybe the lack of results. But in my mind I've always felt that I've been No. 1. But that's how you have to think going into any sport, I think, or else if you don't think like this, you'll lack confidence. I think you need to have a lot of confidence to succeed at this level."
 
Only one woman will occupy the sole spot at the top after the Open, but Bollettieri says the best No. 1 players share some common characteristics.
 
"Let's go back to Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Monica Seles —  their passion and dedication and discipline was unmatched," Bollettieri recalls. "They all worked countless hours to get better. Monica Seles would not leave the practice court until she had mastered a shot. She’d keep me out there till 10 o’clock at night, hell she probably cost me two or three wives because she stayed so late working so hard. I always enjoy working with Venus and Serena at the Academy. They work their ass off; my coaches used to dive into the bushes when the Williams sisters came to practice because they beat the shit out of them. They just beat you up physically and we don't have a girl right now who can beat you up. I think Venus and Serena almost have to peak for the majors now because they run so hard for every freaking ball —  in practice and in matches —  that you see how their bodies can break down over the course of a long season so they almost have to peak for majors at this point."
 
The woman who wins the Open may not wake up on top of the world, but could well be on her way to wrapping up the year-end top spot —  then again it could signal just one more seismic shift in an ongoing tumultuous time at the top.
 
"Maybe the U.S. Open will be tell-tale," Navratilova says. "It's been a very up and down year for all of them.  It's anybody's ballgame. If I was in the top six I would look at it as a great opportunity because I can still be No. 1 at the end of the year. That's how you look at it."

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