Italian translation at settesei.it
Last night in Miami, Venus Williams beat newly re-minted WTA No. 1 Angelique Kerber. Venus, of course, has plenty of experience clashing with the very best in women’s tennis, with 15 Grand Slam finals and three spells at the No. 1 ranking herself.
Last night’s quarterfinal was Venus’s 37th match against a WTA No. 1 and her 15th win. Kerber became the sixth different top-ranked player to lose at the hands of the elder Williams sister.
All of these numbers are very impressive, especially when you consider that, taken as a whole, WTA No. 1s have won just over 88% of their nearly 2,300 matches since the modern ranking system was instituted. However, Venus doesn’t hold the record in any of these categories.
Records against No. 1s are a somewhat odd classification, since the best players tend to reach the top spot themselves. For example, Martina Hingis played only 11 matches against top-ranked opponents, barely one-fifth as many as the leader in that category. On the other hand, injuries and other layoffs have meant that many all-time greats have found themselves lower in the rankings for long stretches. That is particularly true of Venus and Serena Williams.
With her 37 matches played against No. 1s, Venus is approaching the top of the list, but it will take a superhuman effort to catch Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, at 51:
Rank Player Matches vs No. 1 1 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 51 2 Gabriela Sabatini 38 3 Venus Williams 37 4 Lindsay Davenport 34 5 Conchita Martinez 33 6 Helena Sukova 31 7 Serena Williams 28 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova 27 - Jana Novotna 27 10 Amelie Mauresmo 25 11 Maria Sharapova 23
Wins against No. 1s is a more achievable goal. Martina Navratilova holds the current record at 18*, followed by Serena at 16, and then Lindsay Davenport and Venus at 15:
Rank Player Wins Losses 1 Martina Navratilova 18* 2 Serena Williams 16 12 3 Lindsay Davenport 15 19 - Venus Williams 15 22 5 Steffi Graf 11 8 6 Gabriela Sabatini 10 28 7 Amelie Mauresmo 8 17 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova 7 20 - Maria Sharapova 7 16 - Mary Pierce 7 15 - Justine Henin 7 9
*My database does not have rankings throughout Navratilova’s entire career, but other sources credit her with 18 wins.
Win percentage against top-ranked opponents is a bit trickier, as it depends where you set the minimum number of matches. I’ve drawn the line at five. That’s rather low, but I wanted to include Alize Cornet and Elina Svitolina, active players who have each won three of their six matches against No. 1s. By this standard, Venus ranks eighth, though equally reasonable thresholds of 8 or 10 matches would move her up two or three places:
Rank Player Wins Losses Win% 1 Steffi Graf 11 8 57.9% 2 Serena Williams 16 12 57.1% 3 Petra Kvitova 5 4 55.6% 4 Elina Svitolina 3 3 50.0% - Alize Cornet 3 3 50.0% 6 Lindsay Davenport 15 19 44.1% 7 Justine Henin 7 9 43.8% 8 Venus Williams 15 22 40.5% 9 Vera Zvonareva 4 7 36.4% - Dinara Safina 4 7 36.4%
Remember that the average player wins fewer than 12% of matches against No. 1s!
Finally, Venus’s defeat of Kerber gave her a win against her sixth different No. 1, moving her into second place in that department. As is so often the case, she trails only her sister, who has beaten seven. Oddly enough, there is very little overlap between Serena’s and Venus’s lists: Their only common victims are Hingis and Davenport. The full list:
Rank Player No. 1s defeated 1 Serena Williams 7 2 Venus Williams 6 3 Steffi Graf 5 - Kim Clijsters 5 - Amelie Mauresmo 5 - Maria Sharapova 5 7 Petra Kvitova 4 - Lindsay Davenport 4 - Justine Henin 4 - Svetlana Kuznetsova 4
If Karolina Pliskova–who now stands within 1500 points of No. 1 and could further close the gap in Miami–reaches the top spot, Venus may get a chance to beat a 7th top player. Of course, Serena could get that chance, as well.