Why don't women remain No. 1 longer? Conchita Martinez answers
Conchita Martinez, former World No. 2, has given her point of view about the race to the summit in women’s professional tennis. What prompted this reflection is the recent crowning of Ashleigh Barty, who stepped in front of Naomi Osaka in the WTA ranking, thus ending the Japanese’s 21-week streak as a best-placed player.
“It is true that for women it is more complicated to endure being there [on the first place of the ranking],” Martinez told Septimo Game. “In my time they had more stability. On the subject, there are several opinions. I do not know how to give you the exact answer. But one is that the level of all the players has become more equal. Another is that there is instability. A player takes a terrific half of the year winning many points and then cannot stand the pressure to defend themselves. Yes, it is true that now the players are better prepared physically and they hit the ball a lot more. But I would like to see much more stability of the tennis players that are up.”
It is a widely popular opinion that the women’s tour is not as solid as it was before. As it happened in the most recent Grand Slam, it is hard for the public to see their picked favourite go far in a Major tournament. None of the Roland Garros semifinalists were Top-4 seeded players, Ashleigh Barty was seed No. 8 and Johanna Konta No. 26 -- which, from this point of view seems more than great, but on the other hand it means that none of the top WTA-ranked players have managed to meet the expectations that their position in the race implied.
Steffi Graf holds the WTA’s record of a number of total weeks as World No. 1, with 377 in total, followed by Serena Williams (319), Martina Navratilova (332), Chris Evert (260), and Martina Hingis (209). Of these women, only Williams is still active on tour, and apart from her, no current WTA player has a collection of weeks at the first place that goes beyond 100 -- Caroline Wozniacki (71), Simona Halep (64), Victoria Azarenka (51) and Angelique Kerber (34). In the last fifteen years, seventeen women have alternated each other on the top of the WTA ranking: Justine Henin (117 weeks in total), Amelie Mauresmo (39), Lindsay Davenport (98), Maria Sharapova (21), Kim Clijsters (20), Ana Ivanovic (12), Jelena Jankovic (18), Williams, Dinara Safina (26), Wozniacki, Azarenka, Kerber, Karolina Pliskova (8), Garbine Muguruza (4), Halep, Naomi Osaka (21) and most recently Ashleigh Barty (1 ongoing).
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2RPFT8o
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