Omair, our stats expert, is using numbers to clarify our never-ending debates. This time he will examine the emergence of players who reached the top of the WTA rankings without winning a Grand Slam - Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina and Caroline Wozniacki – and closer investigate their performance in the years they became number ones. Part 2, to be publish next week, will look into the slamless No.1 years of players that had crowned their careers with major titles. You'll see, it's a revealing perspective!

A lot of debate has been going on over the last few years regarding the coveted world No.1 spot in the WTA rankings. Issues have been raised that the WTA ranking system is flawed, that the player must win a Grand Slam before she gets to the top. Is the WTA ranking system really flawed? And is it mandatory for a player to be a Grand Slam winner before she attains No.1 in the rankings? If yes, then why? And if no, then why has the hype been created?

These are the questions that will be debated on forever. As for me, being the best player in the world does not mean that you have to win all the tournaments or you have to win some specific events. For me, the best player in the world is the one who has been the most consistent throughout the year. You should not be ranked the best player in the world if you win all the four majors and do poorly the rest of the year. A player doing well in all the tournaments has all the right to be the best player in the world. How do you define the best player? What is your opinion on who should be the world No.1 player?

THE BEGINNINGS OF "SLAMLESS NUMBER ONES": WHO WAS THE FIRST AND WHEN WAS THE TERM COINED?

The term "slamless No.1" first appeared in August 2003 when Kim Clijsters became the first Belgian ever (man or woman) to be ranked world No.1. During that stellar season, Clijsters compiled a 90–12 singles record. Her singles win total was the highest single-season total by any woman since Martina Navratilova in 1982. Clijsters was also the first woman to play more than 100 singles matches in a year since Chris Evert in 1974.

Amelie Mauresmo followed in the footsteps of Kim Clijsters in 2004, when Mauresmo became the first French player to attain the top spot in the WTA rankings. Jelena Jankovic then repeated the same feat in 2008 and clinched the year-end top spot as well. Dinara Safina followed in 2009 and Caroline Wozniacki in 2010.

While Clijsters did go on to win her first Grand Slam at the 2005 US Open, and Mauresmo did it at the Australian Open 2006, Safina, Jankovic and Wozniacki are still in the hunt of their first ever major trophy. Will they ever be able to win it, only time will tell us.

Let's have a look at the seasons of the these five players, during which they first attained the top spot. Let the numbers do the talking, and let yourself be the judge as to who do you think did the best during her season that saw her attain the world No. 1 ranking for the first time. Do comment on how do you people see the seasons of these five players.

PERFORMANCE OF SLAMLESS WORLD NUMBER ONES IN THE YEAR THEY REACHED THE TOP RANKING

GRAND SLAM RESULTS OF SLAMLESS WORLD NUMBER ONES IN THE YEAR THEY REACHED THE TOP RANKING

Read more »

Dinara Safina updated her Twitter followers, i.e. "her sweet tweeties", on her upcoming tennis plans and the news is that her career is still on hold. We will certainly not see the 25-year-old Russian on the courts in the beginning of the 2012 season and at the Australian Open, and whether she will ever come back to tennis is still a big question. Read more »

Since the photos of players when they were kids is one of your favorite sections on Women's Tennis Blog, I decided to include it on the homepage, at least for a while. Actually, it's all the idea of our reader Tony (PennettaFan on Twitter). Under the title "Little tennis stars", below in the left sidebar, you can see young Monica Seles and links to all the other players' childhood photos that have been included on Women's Tennis Blog so far.

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Also, I was inspired to make a poll where you can vote for the cutest childhood photo of a WTA player. This list is of course by no means extensive. Feel free to share some cute photos of WTA players you may have come across, and I can feature them in future articles and polls.

Below are my photo favorites included in the poll:

1) Dinara Safina – I love her face expression here.

2) Sara Errani – Adorable curly blond hair, love the vintage look.

Read more »

Dinara Safina's brother Marat recently stated how his sister's back is in such a bad state that she should forget tennis and look for living a regular life.

She must continue with her therapy, but would not be able to play again.

He also said that she was about to announce her retirement. However, the young Russian is denying her brother's claims and on her Twitter account she's saying that a retirement is still not her chosen option, she just doesn't know yet when she will return.

My sweet tweeties, I didn't make yet any official announcement… Give me please some time and I'll let you all know… Right now I want to take of my back, on Tuesday I'm having a treatment… Once I decide something you'll be the first to know I promise! Love you all.

Safina announced an indefinite break from tennis in May, while she hasn't played since April in Madrid. (photo by our reader Tony)

Dinara Safina's brother Marat says that given his sister's physical condition, i.e. the state of her back, it is impossible for her to come back to tennis. She should forget about putting more strain on her body and simply lead a normal life.

She had tried several times to make a comeback but it only caused her more problems. Now she must think of herself, not if she could play again, but just to live a normal life. She must continue with her therapy, but would not be able to play again.

Marat also said that Dinara will make an official announcement of the inevitable retirement herself.

In August Safina announced she would not play tennis until the end of the year for sure, and possibly indefinitely, while she hadn't competed in tournaments since the Madrid Open in May because of the persistent back injury. She is now ranked 130th.

This outcome is so unfortunate. Safina is still young and she's a powerful player with one of the most interesting personalities on the Tour. (source: Reuters, photo by our reader Tony)

Was Dinara Safina inspired my recent updates of the players' childhood pictures series when I added super cute photos of Samantha Stosur and Sara Errani last week? The Russian shared a number of family pictures on Twitter, including this gorgeous photo of herself. That face expression is so Dinara!

There are also many photos of her elder brother Marat when he was a kid and young photos of their parents, mother Raouza Islanova and father Michail.

Reminder: Three years ago Women's Tennis Blog showed you some photos of little Dinara and her family and also an adorable video of 3-year-old Dinara playing tennis.

Women's Tennis Blog is back from summer vacation! Glad to be back with you and tennis. Thanks for all your emails and comments of support, it's nice to know you've been missed.  Before proceeding with regular reports from the world of women's tennis I would like to take a very quick look on the ten days behind us.

The biggest news was Serena Williams' Stanford title. In only her third tournament after a year-long absence Serena won a Permier-level event beating Maria Sharapova 6-1 6-3, Sabine Lisicki 6-1 6-2 and in the final Marion Bartoli 7-5 6-1. The victory saw Serena rise in the rankings from No.169 to No.79. Serena has once again proved her undeniable quality and silenced much of the tennis world!

Elsewhere, Nadia Petrova won inaugural Citi Open by beating top seed Shahar Peer in the final 7-5 6-2. The Russian entered the tournament as a wildcard and was seeded second. It's her tenth career title and first since 2008. Read more »

Dinara Safina is sick of dealing with her back pain and announced that she doesn’t want to play tennis and has no idea when she will be ready to get back to competition. Interestingly, only three days ago Safina tweeted how her next tournament would be Roland Garros.

The situation has apparently changed and Safina’s statement is pretty illustrative of how tired she is of dealing with injury problems: Read more »

Marine of Tennis Notebook has become a regular contributor to Women's Tennis Blog. Now she's making French Open predictions. Do you agree with her?

As we are nearing Roland Garros, tennis enthusiasts are starting to make first predictions about who has got what it takes to win the title. What is interesting about this debate is that there is some hesitation about who to pick as a favorite. The reason is quite simple: No.1 player in the world has won all kinds of tournaments … apart from a Grand Slam.

When Kim Clijsters became a No.1 in 2003, "a No.1 player without a slam" was a new phenomenon in WTA. Her accomplishment was a beginning of the debate which starts off regularly when someone happens to be (un)lucky enough to make it to the top spot "slamless".

The debate opened again with JJ achieving that, and has become pretty intense during the time when Dinara Safina became No.1. We all know what pressure of expectations and constant criticism did with Safina and even though things changed with the arrival of more self-assured Caroline Wozniacki, many people still frown at the No.1 without a Grand Slam crown.

The question "who is the best player in WTA" has become somewhat difficult to answer and therefore it nowadays produces mixed answers, although people tend to select the same couple of names.

So, who is the best player nowadays and who is the most likely to win Roland Garros 2011?

Here are my picks:

1. Caroline Wozniacki– Her performance has shown that she is a No.1 for a reason. Wozniacki goes far or all the way in most of the events she enters and even in Grand Slams rarely leaves before quarterfinals. Read more »

As Marine of Tennis Notebook promised, she's extended her list of emotional WTA players, based on your suggestions. You're welcome to leave a comment on her guest post.

After the great feedback on the article "Top 5 emotional players in womens tennis", with many of you providing some perfect tips on other potential candidates, I have compiled a follow-up on the previous chart.

Dinara Safina

In any sport pressure of expectations and criticism can either make you or break you. Dinara’s story is unfortunately based on the second scenario. Hot temper runs in Safin family, just look at her older brother Marat who also could put on quite a "show" back in his playing days. Mental resilience is not Safina's strength. Especially her Grand Slam performances had shown how much the pressure can get to her head. Instead of a great triumph at several Grand Slam finals, fans saw her playing an unusually mediocre game after a series of great performances.

Victoria Azarenka

It is nothing more frustrating for the player than to lose a match which they started off in an impressive fashion or were very close to winning. There was a time when no lead was safe in Victoria’s hands and she often ended up in an emotional turmoil because of that. Sometimes venting helped because she raised the level of her performance, but sometimes she just broke a few rackets. Read more »