In Part 1 of our feature on slamless number ones we closely analyzed the years in which players reached No.1 ranking without winning a Grand Slam title and the five such players are the likes of Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina and Caroline Wozniacki (the first two won Grand Slam titles later in their careers). This Part 2 will focus on Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport – players who had years in their careers that they finished on top of the rankings without claiming a single Grand Slam title during that season – so they could theoretically be called slamless No.1s, even though they had won Grand Slams in the previous years, because in some years they were ranked No.1 they had no majors won. If these two analyses don't stop all the fuss about the recent "shameful" slamless No.1s I don't know what will! Omair, bring on the numbers!

We have talked a lot about the spot being held by Caroline Wozniacki, Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic and discussed about whether their reign at the top was (is, in case of Wozinacki) fair or not. How did they end up being at the top of rankings without winning a major first? We did not appreciate their consistency throughout the year, tournament in, tournament out, what we did was only criticize them about being the slamless No.1s. I guess that's enough of it, let's move on to something I wanted to share with you guys. The other day I was going through the Tennis.com forums and there I saw that during the past 11 years, i.e. from the beginning of the 20th century, seven times a player has ended the year as No.1 and she did not win a single Grand Slam during the year. Here is the list of year-end No.1 players from 2000 onwards.

Martina Hingis, though she had won Grand Slams before 2000, did not end up winning a single major in 2000 and despite that she ended the year as world No.1. Lindsay Davenport had also won Grand Slams before 2001 but she did not win a single major in 2001, 2004 and 2005 and despite that she ended the years as No.1.

These two players did clinch the top spot without winning a major during that year, yet they have never been criticized for this achievement like Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina and Caroline Wozniacki. Some people argue that they did not win a major during that year but they had won it before that year, which to me is not a very strong logic. I think that these two players were not criticized because by winning a Grand Slam these two players had demonstrated their ability to win majors and hence put the critics to the silent mode.

In our Part 1 we had focused on the years of Clijsters, Mauresmo, Jankovic, Safina and Wozniacki, let's now have a look at how well Hingis and Davenport performed in the years they earned the top spot without winning a major. We won't include the stats of slamless year-end No.1s Jankovic and Wozniacki because we had already included them in our Part 1. Hope you people enjoy it

Hingis never lost before the quarterfinal stage of all the 20 tournaments she played and on top of that, she was only beaten once by a player ranked outside the Top 10. Davenport did not play French Open in 2001, despite that she ended up as world No.1, with a margin of just 10 points from Jennifer Capriati who had won the Australian Open and French Open that year!

* The average rank of conqueror is low due to the fact that both Henin and Clijsters had not played much during 2004 and had low rankings, Clijsters was ranked 133 when she defeated Davenport at Indian Wells and Henin was ranked 43 when she defeated Davenport in Charleston.

PERFORMANCE AT GRAND SLAMS

As you can see, in 2001 and 2004 Davenport reached two Grand Slam semifinals, just like Wozniacki in 2011.

LOSSES AND TITLES OF HINGIS AND DAVENPORT IN THE YEARS THEY ENDED NO.1 WITHOUT WINNING A GRAND SLAM

All these tables, numbers, stats and comparisons show us a few things:

• You don't have to win a Grand Slam to be world No. 1;
• You can't end up playing half year and finish the year at top;
• You have to play consistently throughout the year to be able to grab the top spot;
• Grand Slams alone are not the true measure of being the top player in the world.

Now that you have gone through all the details, what do you think of these top players? Do you agree that we should stop calling Jankovic, Safina and Wozniacki slamless No.1s and simply start referring to them as (real) No.1s? I definitely think so.

For first-time readers of Women's Tennis Blog and Omair's stats, do check out the revealing previous analyses:

• Part 1: Comparison of the five slamless WTA No.1s and the origin of the phenomenon
• 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: dbking, © Neal Trousdale, Tidalist)

My question was the following: "Kim Clijsters had a historic victory last year at the US Open, what do you think her prospects are this time?" The other question is regarding the importance of the US Open Series in getting players ready for the US Open. Listen to what Lindsay had to say.

Once again, thanks Lindsay and Jim for cooperating with me!

I had a short telephone interview with former world No.1 and three-time Grand Slam champion Lindsay Davenport last week. The topic was the Tennis Night in America, the sport's largest youth recruitment effort, which culminated on March 1 when the best stars in tennis competed for the Billie Jean King Cup at the Madison Square Garden.

I know that many of you have eagerly been awaiting the interview, and here it is. My voice is not very clear, probably because I was calling from afar, but anyway, the focus is on Lindsay. I asked her about the main objective of Youth Registration events and Tennis Night in America, why she would suggest people to join, and about her opinion on the general state of women’s tennis in the US. Also, as promised, I asked Lindsay about the way players are selected for the BNP Paribas Showdown, as we are having a discussion here on Women's Tennis Blog whether the criterion is the player’s number of Grand Slam titles,  year-end No.1 ranking, popularity, or possibly something else.

Thank you, Lindsay, for taking your time to talk to me, Jim from KEF Media Associates, thank you for organizing the interview. I hope we'll have more opportunities like this one.

The former world number one returned to competitive tennis only three months after the birth of Jagger, and her comeback was more than successful since she won three of the first four tournaments she entered.

Davanport hasn’t played competitive tennis since the 2008 US Open, and there is still no news whether the 33-year-old mother of two will revive her career again. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

"Of course this unexpected but exciting surprise now means I will be putting tennis on hold for the foreseeable future," Davenport said in a statement issued Wednesday by her agent.

Davenport has a son, Jagger, who was born in June 2007. The three-time Grand Slam singles champion and former world number one then returned to the tour and added another four titles to her resume. (source: ESPN, photo: Getty Images)

The 32-year-old American has not played a tournament since the US Open in September, but is entering the first Grand Slam next season.

The 2000 Australian Open champion has had a very lucrative comeback, winning four titles since returning in September 2007. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

The 32-year-old American, who returned to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in 2007 after giving birth to son Jagger, will need to decide by December 1st whether she’ll play the 2009 tennis season.

"Nothing is in stone yet," Davenport said in comments published by The Maui News. The tennis star was in Maui last week participating in the Wailea Fantasy Camp.

"I really just tried to enjoy this fall, be a mom, be at home. This is actually my first time on the court in 10 weeks. When I get home from here I will have to sit down more seriously and look at what I want to do in the future. Right now, I am just going with it. For sure by December 1st – I need to be practicing by then if I am going to go to Australia and really compete, so I have a few more weeks." (via On the Baseline, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

The news is according to Linda Pearce from The Age:

Lindsay Davenport is not expected to contest January's Australian Open. Still troubled by a knee injury, the 2000 champion at Melbourne Park is considered unlikely to play at tour-level again, having made a comeback in 2007 following the birth of her first child, Jagger.

Davenport gave retirement hints last year, while withdrawing from Wimbledon with the knee injury.

The American has won four singles titles since returning to tennis in 2007. She was awarded Comeback Player of the Year by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in March. (via On the Baseline)

The 1998 champion Davenport was asked whether she believed her defeat to No.12 seed Bartoli might be her US Open farewell and the former number one replied: "I was so ****ed off that I didn't think about anything." Hahaha.

In the fourth round Bartoli will play Austrian 29th seed Sybille Bammer. (photos: Getty Images)

American Lindsay Davenport, the 1996 Olympic champion, has withdrawn from the Olympic singles tournament because of a knee injury, but is expected to play doubles with Liezel Huber.

The injury is the same one that forced Davenport to pull out of Wimbledon in June.

The 2008 Beijing Olympic tennis events begin on Sunday. (photo: Getty Images)