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After a season-long battle for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour No.1 ranking, Serena Williams will conclude the 2009 season as the top ranked singles player in the world, the Tour announced today. When the new rankings are released on Monday, November 2, 2009, Williams will emerge as the new World No.1, replacing Russia's Dinara Safina. Williams recaptures the No.1 ranking at the Sony Ericsson Championships - Doha 2009, following Safina's opening match retirement and Williams' opening round win against Svetlana Kuznetsova. Williams will hold the World No.1 ranking at least through the week of December 28, 2009.

It will mark the fifth time in Serena's career (third time in 2009) that she will be World No.1, having held the top ranking for 57 weeks from July 8, 2002 to August 10, 2003; four weeks from September 8, 2008 to October 6, 2008; 11 weeks from February 2 to April 19, 2009, and two weeks from October 12 to October 25, 2009. Williams will conclude the season as the top-ranked player for the second time in her career, having previously been ranked No.1 at the end of 2002. As a result, she will increase her career total to 83 weeks as the top ranked player. Williams is currently competing at the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in both singles and doubles (with Venus Williams).

"2009 has been a truly memorable season for me during which I enjoyed some of the biggest wins of my career," said Serena Williams. "Capturing the year-end World No.1 ranking is a huge accomplishment for me and I am thrilled that all the hard work has paid off."

"I congratulate Serena on having a great year and achieving one of her goals by finishing the season as the World No.1 player," said Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. "Serena is a terrific ambassador for our sport."

The 28-year-old American has had a stellar 2009 season, winning two Grand Slam singles titles (Australian Open and Wimbledon) and posting solid results at the other two Grand Slams, falling to eventual champions at both (to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros and to Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the US Open). A finalist at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Williams has 10 wins over Top 10 opponents this season. In addition to her success in singles, Williams has also won four doubles titles this year with Venus Williams, including three Grand Slams (Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open) as well as the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

Williams is the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour 2009 prize money leader with $4,623,711 (through week of October 26, 2009) and is on the verge of becoming the second player in Tour history to eclipse the $5 million single-season mark (Justine Henin, 2007). In February of 2009, Williams surpassed Lindsay Davenport ($22,144,735) as the all-time prize money leader on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Williams turned professional at the age of fourteen in November 1995 and played her first tournament in Quebec City, Canada. In her 14-year career she has won every major title at least once for a total of 11 Grand Slam singles titles, becoming only the fifth woman, other than Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Steffi Graf, to achieve such a feat. Of the current players, only Serena's older sister Venus comes close to such an achievement, with seven Grand Slam singles titles to her name. Williams has won four titles at the Australian Open (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009), three at Wimbledon (2002, 2003, 2009), three at the US Open (1999, 2002, 2008), and one at Roland Garros (2002). In addition, Williams has won two Olympic Gold medals, playing doubles with Venus in Sydney in 2000 and again at Beijing in 2008, and is the owner of 34 singles and 17 doubles titles.

Maximum weeks as World No.1:

1. Steffi Graf (GER) 337
2. Martina Navratilova (TCH/USA) 332
3. Chris Evert (USA) 260
4. Martina Hingis (SUI) 209
5. Monica Seles (YUG/USA) 178
6. Justine Henin (BEL) 117
7. Lindsay Davenport (USA) 98
8. Serena Williams (USA) 83*
9. Amélie Mauresmo (FRA) 39
10. Dinara Safina (RUS) 25

*upto end December 2009

File Photograph Copyright: Elizabeth Molineux

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