Across The Net: WTA Tour Championships Settle #1 for 2006
Posted by ikabod Crane on 11.13.2006
Who is the #1 female tennista for 2006? I'll tell you that plus give you my surface rankings for 2006 at no extra cost.
Justine Henin-Hardenne won the WTA Tour Championship 6-4, 6-3 to conclude an eventful 2006. JHH won the French Open and was runner-up at the other three Grand Slam events. Amelie Mauresmo won the Australian Open and Wimbledon, was runner-up at the tour championships, and reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open. Maria Sharapova reached the semifinals of Wimbledon and the Australian Open before winning the U.S. Open in September. Sharapova won a number of smaller events between July and November. So who is #1?
The ATP's (men's tour) ranking system is not easy to decipher, but it is comprehensible if one makes an effort. The WTA Tour's ranking system is far more complicated than even the BCS ranking. If you throw in a murder, you might have the makings of the next Dan Brown novel – The Sharapova Code or Angles and Demons?
At any rate, Justine Henin-Hardenne surpassed Amelie Mauresmo by winning the semifinals of the Tour Championships. Had Mauresmo won the final it would not have mattered. It does not matter that Mauresmo won two Grand Slams to JHH's one or that Mauresmo won three of five matches vs. JHH including the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals. None of that factors in (or maybe it does), but the computer names JHH as its #1 for 2006.
JHH had a claim to make. Reaching all four Grand Slam finals in one calendar year is impressive. Steffi Graf did it in 1988 and 1989. Monica Seles did it in 1992. Martina Hingis did it in 1997. Steffi won 7 Grand Slams during those two years, Seles won three of four and so did Hingis. JHH won one of four. For that reason, I would give Mauresmo the nod as the top player for 2006, but JHH is not a bad choice.
To elaborate, Lindsay Davenport won zero Grand Slams and reached zero Grand Slam finals in 2001 yet somehow finished the year at #1 over Jennifer Capriati and Venus Williams who each won two Grand Slam titles in 2001??? I am not saying the WTA Computer pulled a HAL 9000 in 2001, but if anything came close to making fiction into reality it must have been the WTA computer.
So for 2006, Justine Henin-Hardenne reigns as the top female player in the world. At least that is what the numbers say after they have been crunched. Mauresmo and JHH ought to be near the top again in 2007. Both players appear to be on the downside of their primes whereas Maria Sharapova seems to be entering her prime. 2007 might be a horse race, but unless some younger players improve dramatically 2008 will be all Sharapova on any surface not named clay. Then again someone who will not reach a Grand Slam final might sneak in and take the #1 ranking in the future.
