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NEW YORK — When Thomas Muster became No.1 in the ATP rankings in 1996, he was criticized because most of his ranking points were earned at clay-court tournaments.
At the time, the feisty Austrian defended himself by stating, “I did not buy my points in the supermarket.”
Heading into Friday's U.S. Open semi-finals, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina and Serena Williams, all with a chance for the No.1 ranking if they win tomorrow's final, did not buy their points in a supermarket, but may have got them in a liquidation sale.
That occurred when reigning No.1 Justine Henin retired in May, taking with her a sizable chunk of points from the rankings and levelling the playing field for the race to succeed her.
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Maria Sharapova inherited the top spot after Henin left and before Ana Ivanovic took over by winning the French Open. But Ivanovic stumbled at Wimbledon, exiting in the third round, and since then the chase for No.1 has been a free-for-all.
The flux of the situation was most obvious when Jankovic held the top spot for all of one week – two weeks before the U.S. Open.
Williams, the only remaining player with a Grand Slam title – in fact eight of them – would appear the favourite to regain the summit, a place she is familiar with after being No.1 for 57 weeks in 2002 and 2003.
That is particularly so after her 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7) quarter-final victory over her sister Venus, a match in which she saved two set points in the first set and eight in the second.
The result was sweet revenge for Serena, who lost the Wimbledon final 7-5, 6-4 to Venus.
“I definitely managed my emotions better,” she said. “I felt I got really negative at Wimbledon and lost any chance I might have had.”
Serena, 27 in three weeks, and Venus, 28, appear to have rededicated themselves to the game. Venus talked on Wednesday about playing in the Olympics in 2016, while Serena, who has rarely made the commitment needed to get to the top ranking, declared, “Believe me, I'm going to be No.1 sooner or later.”
She plays Dinara Safina in this afternoon's second semi-final. The Russian is the hottest player on tour, having reached the final of six of her previous seven tournaments, including winning in Los Angeles, Montreal (Rogers Cup) and being a silver medalist at the Olympics.
While Williams leads their head-to-head matchups 3-1, Safina won 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) in their previous encounter, at the German Open in May.
Safina was so mentally and physically exhausted from all her recent tennis that she broke down and cried before her round-of-16 match against Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany, telling her coach she could no longer push herself. But she won that match in two sets and claims to be revitalized. After a 6-2, 6-3 quarter-final win over Flavia Pennetta on Wednesday, Safina said: “Already [Tuesday], I was practising and I had a smile on my face. I was, like, ‘Okay, now I can play [again] and move.'”
In Friday's other semi-final, Jankovic may have a slight advantage over Dementieva. Known as one of the tour's drama queens, the flamboyant Serb looked flat and uninspired during the early rounds, but all that changed when she lost the first set of her round-of-16 match against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. Jankovic rallied to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, playing more aggressively, and now says she feels a lot better.
She has a career 4-3 advantage over Olympic gold medalist Dementieva, who has twice been a Grand Slam runner-up – in 2004 at the French and U.S. Opens.
Yesterday, the U.S. Open officials took the unusual step of sending out this by e-mail: “The current weather forecast for the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center calls for rain on Saturday, Sept. 6, during both Day Session #24 (Men's Singles Semi-finals) and Night Session #25 (Women's Singles Final).”
As a result, the women's final could be delayed until Sunday, with men's not played until Monday.
It would be a shame if what has been a smooth-flowing event had to come to a somewhat discombobulated conclusion.
