Saturday, January 26, 2008

Sharapova moves into top half of all-time draw


At the end of 2006, I thought Maria Sharapova was set to go on one of those runs you see by the top women's tennis players where she ran off five or six major titles out of seven.

The kind of dominance that came from King, Court, Navratilova and Serena Williams.

Instead, Williams kind of put her into a permanent funk by beating her in the 2007 Australian Open.

Sharapova rebounded in the '08 Aussie though. Her 6-4, 6-0 beat down of Justine Henin may mark a permanent shift in that battle. Of course, she'll have to hold off Ana Ivanovic for the next few years since they are both just 20.

The win gives Sharapova three of the four major titles and she was a semifinalist last year. She leapfrogged several players in the all-time women's tennis tournament.

Here's the new top 32:

Rank, Player, Country, Years, Points
1. Martina Navratilova, Czechoslovakia, 1974-2006, 165.63
2. Steffi Graf, Germany, 1985-1999, 154.13
3. Chris Evert-Lloyd, United States, 1971-1989, 113.40
4. Margaret Smith-Court, Australia, 1968-1975, 96.75
5. Monica Seles, Yugoslavia, 1989-2002, 92.85
6. Billie Jean King, United States, 1968-1983, 88.14
7. Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, Australia, 1971-1980, 80.35
8. Serena Williams, United States, 1998-2007, 68.62
9. Martina Hingis, Switzerland, 1996-2006, 65.15
10. Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario, Spain, 1989-2000, 63.14
11. Justine Henin, Belgium, 2001-2007, 62.14
12. Venus Williams, United States, 1997-2007, 61.12
13. Hana Mandlikova, Czechoslovakia, 1980-1987, 47.65
14. Lindsay Davenport, United States, 1996-2005, 47.40
15. Maria Sharapova, Russia, 2004-2008, 31.97
16. Jennifer Capriati, United States, 1990-2004, 29.93
17. Virginia Wade, England, 1968-1977, 28.92
18. Tracy Austin, United States, 1979-1981, 28.55
19. Mary Pierce, France, 1994-2005, 27.15
20. Gabriela Sabatini, Argentina, 1985-1995, 27.03
21. Amelie Mauresmo, France, 1999-2006, 25.00
22. Kim Clijsters, Belgium, 2001-2005, 23.76
23. Conchita Martinez, Spain, 1994-2000, 22.69
24. Jana Novotna, Czechoslovakia, 1991-1998, 21.55
25. Ann Haydon-Jones, England, 1968-1969, 20.17
26. Kerry Melville-Reid, Australia, 1970-1977, 15.61
27. Virginia Ruzici, Romania, 1978-1980, 15.40
28. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, 2004-2007, 14.91
29. Helena Sukova, Czechoslovakia, 1984-1993, 14.74
30. Mimi Jausovec, Yugoslavia, 1977-1983, 14.41
31. Mary-Joe Fernandez, United States, 1989-1997, 13.33
32. Nancy Richey, United States, 1968-1970, 12.83

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