A NEW NO. 1: A combination of Dinara Safina‘s loss to wildcard entrant Zhang Shuai and Serena Williams‘ 6-3, 6-2 victory over Ekaterina Makarova at the China Open has put Williams back atop the WTA rankings at No. 1. The reigning Aussie Open and Wimbledon champ regains the top slot for the first time since April. “It feels pretty good. I’m really excited,” Williams said. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, but I’m obviously happy to be there because I feel like I’ve been working so hard all year and just happy to be back.”
THE NAKED TRUTH: Serena Williams will grace the cover of ESPN the Magazine’s Body Issue, due to hit newsstands on Oct. 9. But this isn’t just any run-of-the-mill cover — Serena has shed all her clothes for this one. Says her physiotherapist, Esther Lee, “Serena is blessed with a solid, hourglass, athletic build with muscle mass. It suits her game, which is all about power.”
STAR STRUCK: Oscar-nominated actor Clive Owen (Children of Men, Duplicity, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, etc.) revealed that he is a bit of a tennis nut, telling The New Yorker that he’s a Rafael Nadal fan.
NO MURRAY MANIA HERE: One would assume that Andy Murray would be among the favorites of Heather Watson, the first British player ever to win the U.S. Open Junior Girls title. But the 17-year-old said she prefers Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Juan Martin Del Potro, James Blake, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to the Scot. Said Watson, “I’ve never even spoken to Andy Murray.”
THE NUMBERS
189: Ranking of French qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who took out U.S. Open titlist Juan Martin Del Potro in the first round of the Japan Open 6-4, 6-4.
$21.4 million: Australian Open prize money for 2010 — a 4.1 percent increase from 2009.
QUOTEBOOK
“WTA order, to some degree, has been restored.” — The USA Today’s Doug Robson on Serena Williams‘ return to No. 1
“It was only 15 months ago that two of the highest-ever achievers in world sport were seriously asking us to contemplate how different the histories of men’s golf and women’s tennis might have been had they fallen in love 30 years earlier. And it wasn’t a gimmick; there wasn’t a marketing man involved, there was no agent in sight, no shoe brand, no rapid-recovery drink they were selling, just the concept of love, togetherness and the ideal partnership as a performance-enhancing drug.” —Owen Slot on the Chris Evert–Greg Norman split
“This is my third comeback.” — 35-year-old Vince Spadea, who is playing a $50,000 Challenger in Sacramento, Calif.
