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

At three of four Grand Slam events Clijsters was defeated by the eventual champion, with the only exception being Wimbledon where she lost to Venus Williams in the semis, who then lost to sister Serena in the final. At both French Open and the US Open Clijsters was defeated by none other than Justine Henin.

Safina was defeated by Serena at the Australian Open and Svetlana Kuznetsova at the French Open, while Venus thrashed Safina in Wimbledon semis (6-1 6-0) which marked the fewest games won by a reigning No.1 in a match. Serena mocked Safina's status of the top player. After Serena won Wimbledon, she said that she would rather be world No.2 and win two Grand Slams, than be world No.1 and win Rome.

As for our current world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, we can notice that her 15-4 win-loss record at Grand Slams in the year she first occupied the top spot is the worst of the five slamless number ones.

PERFORMANCE AT YEAR-END CHAMPIONSHIPS

PERFORMANCE AT TOURNAMENTS

INSIGHT INTO LOSSES

What is interesting to note here is that Clijsters was beaten only thrice by a player outside the Top 25 during the whole year and for a total of four times only by a player ranked outside the Top 5. I guess Clijsters' season of 2003 was the best of all these five players. What do you people think?

Safina is the only slamless No.1 who lost to a player outside the Top 100 in the year she reached the top of the rankings. Safina fell to a world No.132 player and a world No.226 player consecutively.

As for our current No.1, Caroline Wozniacki, she had six losses to players outside Top 25, while her lowest-ranked conqueror was then-No.62 Petra Kvitova, currently the world's second-ranked player.

How do you see the performance of these five stars during their stellar seasons which made them achieve the top spot?

Thanks, Omair, for contributing with your analysis once again. I'm looking forward to posting Part 2. For those who have joined us for the first time, do explore Omair's previous insights into the 2011 season:

• Comparative analysis of Top 10 players and their performance at big tournaments in 2011
• Part 1: Top 10 players in 2011 – how they scored against fellow big opponents
• Part 2: Top 10 players in 2011 – what do their losses suggest?

(photos: © Neal Trousdale, Stephane Martinache)

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.

It's been seven and a half months that the former world No.1 Safina hasn't played due to her injured back and in that period on several occasions she stated that her comeback is still not in sight. Even her brother Marat, a fresh member of the Russian parliament, said that due to her condition her retirement is definite, but Dinara later denied such claims.

Meanwhile, Safina is giving us valuable eating advice ahead of holidays

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.

3) Sam Stosur - Classic girl beauty.

4) Jelena Jankovic – I love this photo of JJ in a fluffy top and skirt with lots of flowers, make-up and bracelets.

5) Elena Dementieva – Angelic girl.

6) Monica Seles - Very cute photo.

7 ) Ana Ivanovic - So adorable.

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.

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.

There was another new tournament taking place recently – the Baku Cup in Azerbaijan. Top seed Vera Zvonareva was victorious there, beating Ksenia Pervak 6-1 6-4 in the final.

As for off-court events, Argentina's Gisela Dulko married Real Madrid soccer player Fernando Gago.

Now let's move on to the fresher news. Dinara Safina has announced on her official website that she will not play competitive tennis at least for the rest of the year. Her back injury is still not allowing her to think about a comeback. We can't say it's a big surprise.

Bojana Jovanovski, thank you for making us laugh today! Thanks to her agent, the Serbian tennis star ended up in wrong Carlsbad in the USA. She headed off to Carlsbad, California, to play the Mercury Insurance Open, but instead flew to Carlsbad, New Mexico, 900 miles (1,500 km away). After spending a night in the lonely desert town she flew to California in the morning and arrived only half an hour before her first-round match against Roberta Vinci. Jovanovski lost 3-6 6-4 6-1. (photos via Yahoo and our reader Tony)

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:

I don't know how long my time out is going to last. I don't want to torture myself and my body anymore. I'm just tired of constant questions from my coach in training, 'How is your back? Can you do this exercise?' I'm just tired of fighting with myself. At the moment I can't do anything tennis-wise. When I can do certain moves without feeling lots of pain, then I would consider resuming my training. Right now I don't care when I might return – this summer during the American hardcourt series, towards the end of the season or next year. I'll take as much time as I need.

The 25-year-old Russian is just one of a series of former world No.1s who have not been present on the WTA Tour for an extended period. While Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters are still marked as questionable for the approaching French Open, Serena Williams will certainly skip it, according to the latest news. (source: BBC, photos by our reader Tony)

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.

2. Kim Clijsters (if healthy) – As she gets older she gets better. Unlike in the past when she was struggling with nerves, nowadays she can stay calm under the pressure and raise her game when she has to. Good example are her three great wins over an old rival, Justine Henin.

3. Ana Ivanovic (??) – Well, I say this with a question mark because her performance can be still quite unstable – at one moment she is up there with the greatest and the next we see her doing poorly. As a former winner she probably has the most self-confidence (and thus highest chances) on clay.

4. Dark horses: Samantha Stosur, Francesca Schiavone, Svetlana Kuznetsova

All had achieved a great success at Roland Garros, although Stosur did not go all the way to win it. However, their performance is rather unpredictable as they all have had ups and downs during this season.

Just a short note: To ease the pressure off slamless No.1s, I would like to remind everyone of the recent occasions when players achieved their career peaks late in their careers, like Francesca Schiavone winning the 2010 French Open and the Morocco victory of Alebrta Brianti (she won her first WTA title at 31). Marine also has a nice post about it, entitled "Golden Oldies". (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

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.

Anna Chakvetadze

Hot temper can be put to the best use if you use it to pump yourself up. Anna is pretty good at it and sometimes it helped her to overcome tight and stressful situations. An example is a match in Fed Cup against Israel where she was fighting the adversity of the crowd with loud come-ons after every point she scored.

Caroline Wozniacki

This choice of the readers surprised me because Caroline usually shows off a very laid-back personality. Well who would not be relaxed in her situation? Her performance is rock-solid and it is becoming unusual to see her lose. Anyway, Sunshine has also been "covered by clouds" sometimes. When the things do not go as smoothly as she is used to, usually she resorts to throwing a racket or quarrelling with herself. The only emotionally difficult times for Wozniacki occur during Grand Slams. The rumour goes that after her loss at the Australian Open 2011 she spent a long time in tears back in the locker room.

Aravane Rezai

Aravane is a player you cannot overlook. Apart from eye-catching dresses, she possesses a great fighting spirit and has "in it to win it" attitude no matter who she stands up against. The will to win is obvious from her body language when almost every won point is celebrated with fist pumps and jumping around. On the other hand, when the tactic does not work she is shouting at herself after every lost ball. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)