After Serena Williams lost the Miami final, Safina was guaranteed to reach number one in the world on the 20th of April '09.
The general consensus is that this is a bad thing for the WTA. Well, Safina has certainly had some of the best results of anyone over the past 12 months on the tour, including a handful of Premier (TierI) tournament wins, and two slam finals. Slam wins are a prerequisite for the die-hards though. No slam wins for Safina mean she's instantly not worthy. The same was said about Jankovic when she reached the rankings summit without a slam to her name. Added to the lack of a slam, Safina's form this year has been average at best. After fluking her way to the Australian Open final thanks to a very open draw, she has lost to a red-hot Razzano in Dubai in two sets, and the hopeless Stosur in Miami, again in two sets.
Serena Willams on the her hand has two slam wins over the past year and another slam final. Her current form is much better than Safina's. Yet the main reason why tennis aficionados want Serena to keep her ranking is because she is considered a proven champion. Safina is considered more the opportunist who has taken advantage of the WTA's slump and an extremely hard worker over the past 12 months.
But would Safina reaching the top spot be all that bad for the WTA? Unlikely. The only people who will think it's a travesty are the die-hards. Casual fans probably won't notice, and even if they do they probably wouldn't care enough to question it. It's doubtful that Safina will be number one for all that long, especially considering her current form and the amount of points she's defending in the red clay court season.
Highlights of Safina's match against Sharapova in the fourth round of the Australian Open last year:
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