Female Tennis Players with Most Weeks at Number One

Caroline Wozniacki will once again fall short at a Grand Slam. Wozniacki fell to Kim Clijsters in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. When the tournament concludes it will end her run as the top ranked women's tennis player. She has spent a total of 66 weeks at number one. That is the highest total for a female tennis player to never win a Grand Slam title. Here is a look at the five women that have spent the most weeks on top of the rankings.

1. Steffi Graf - 377 weeks

Graf holds the record for weeks at number one as well as the record for consecutive weeks on top of the rankings. She once had a stretch of more than three years on top. That is not surprising considering she owns 22 Grand Slam singles titles. She has won every Grand Slam title at least four times and she won all four in the same year in 1988.

2. Martina Navratilova - 332 weeks

Navratilova owns 18 singles titles at Grand Slam events and a ton more in the doubles category. She is easily one of the most dominant figures ever in tennis. Her best tournament was Wimbledon where she won the singles title nine times. She owns the record for most tournament titles as well.

3. Chris Evert - 260 weeks

Evert was the first woman to top the world rankings. She had a great presence in the 1970s and also won 18 Grand Slam titles. Her best tournament was the French Open. She won that title a record seven times. She also holds the record for winning percentage by winning nearly 90 percent of her matches.

4. Martina Hingis - 209 weeks

Hingis rose to the top in the late 1990s and looked like she would be on track to be the next Graf. She won three Grand Slam titles in 1997 and a total of six in her career. However, Hingis ran out of steam by the year 2000 and never won a Grand Slam title after 1999.

5. Monica Seles - 178 weeks

Seles rose to the top in the early 19990s on the strength of a string of Grand Slam titles. However, a stabbing in 1993 took a major toll on her career. She missed two years of the sport but did have a successful comeback, adding to her resume and finishing her career with a total of nine Grand Slam singles titles.

Sharapova, Kvitova set up Aussie Open semifinal

Former and reigning Wimbledon winners Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova will meet in the Australian Open semifinals after both won in straight sets on Wednesday.

Sharapova won 6-2, 6-3 against fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova, who knocked out five-time champion Serena Williams in the previous round.

Kvitova earlier reached the semifinals at Melbourne Park for the first time with a 6-4, 6-4 win over unseeded Italian Sara Errani.

Kvitova beat Sharapova in last year’s Wimbledon final to claim her first Grand Slam title.

“Obviously it was a tough one at Wimbledon,” Sharapova said. “She’s full of confidence and playing the best tennis right now. I look forward to it.”

Sharapova and Kvitova also kept alive their chances of claiming the top ranking, which Caroline Wozniacki will vacate on Monday after her quarterfinal loss to Kim Clijsters.

The fourth-seeded Sharapova must repeat her 2008 Australian title win. Kvitova only has to match or better the run of Victoria Azarenka, the only other player still in the running this week for the No. 1 spot.

Sharapova has dropped one set and lost 21 games en route to her first Australian Open semifinal since she won the 2008 final—the last of her three major titles.

“It’s been a long road back to this stage,” said Sharapova, who spent 10 months off court with a shoulder injury that required surgery later in 2008.

Kvitova was far from her best against an opponent making her debut in a Grand Slam quarterfinal, and with a 0-24 record against top-10 players. The second-seeded Czech made 44 errors and had to come back from a break down in the second set.

“I was a little nervous because I knew that everybody expect it will be easy match,” Kvitova said. “Probably I had in my head that it’s a good draw.”

The men’s semifinal lineup also will be completed Wednesday.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic is up against fifth-seeded David Ferrer in the first match of the night session. Two-time finalist Andy Murray faces Kei Nishikori of Japan.

Two of the so-called “Big Four,” Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, are already through to a marquee semifinal after winning Wednesday.

Federer beat 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in his 1,000th tour-level match. Nadal rallied for a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-3 win over Tomas Berdych.

Their match on Thursday will be their 27th in all and 10th at a major, but their first in a Grand Slam semifinal since 2005.

Yelling “Vamos,” disputing line calls, pumping his arms after winning big points and bounding around like a hyperactive kid, Nadal ripped winner after winner against Berdych in a 4-hour, 16-minute display of pure intimidation.

He said he was nervous in the first set—he’d lost in the quarterfinals two straight years—but by the third and fourth sets things had changed.

“The character on court, the way to win the points … the level is very positive, much, much better than the end of the season,” he said. “Semifinals is fantastic result for me.”

Federer finished his match with one of his classic, one-handed backhands against Del Potro, one of only two men who have beaten him in a major final. The other is Nadal, who has done it six times.

That lopsided record aside, there’s a touch of extra tension this time in this usually cordial rivalry. Nadal had told Spanish reporters during a discussion about player discontent that Federer liked to protect his reputation as a gentleman by saying nothing negative in public and letting others “burn.”

Both have since played down the comments. On Tuesday, Federer said it didn’t damage their relationship.

“No. No. Honestly, no,” he said. “It was here for one day and then gone again. I’m happy about that because it didn’t deserve more attention than it did. So for me, it’s another great match with Rafa. … Obviously I’d like to play Rafa because of our great epic match earlier in the finals here a few years ago.”

Thursday’s match will be the first time they have met at Melbourne Park since Nadal won the 2009 title in five seesawing sets. Nadal collected the trophy from the great Rod Laver after consoling Federer as he sobbed in the background.

“We are talking about a player who has won 16 Grand Slams, and I’ve won 10,” Nadal said. “We have played a lot of matches together, many in very important moments for our careers. So the matches against him are always special, even if we are (ranked) 20 against 25.”

The other women’s semifinal will feature defending champion Clijsters against third-seeded Azarenka. Clijsters advanced with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over Wozniacki, who remains without a major title. Azarenka rallied for a 6-7 (0), 6-0, 6-2 win over eighth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska.

Nadal beats Berdych, sets up semi against Federer

Rafael Nadal will meet Roger Federer in the Australian Open semifinals after coming back to beat No. 7 Tomas Berdych 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday night.

No. 2-ranked Nadal and No. 3-ranked Federer are on the same half of the draw at a major for the first time since 2005.

Federer beat U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro earlier in three sets to advance to the Australian Open semis for the ninth consecutive year. He has won four of his 16 Grand Slam titles at Melbourne Park.

Nadal won the Australian title in 2009, but lost in the quarterfinals in 2010 and ’11.

It was Nadal’s 10th consecutive win over Berdych, a sequence including the 2010 Wimbledon final.

Aus T20 team abandons green goes black

Cricket Australia has unveiled an unconventional black strip as their new Twenty20 uniform.

Skipper Cameron White paraded the outfit on Tuesday complete with a green and gold trim more resembling the Jamaican national colours than the traditional Australian hues, reports the Telegraph.

Cricket Australia says the new colour scheme will resonate better with the younger generation, a demographic cricket desperately needs to win over as participation rates and interest continue to drop.

Australia's new one-day and Test uniforms were also unveiled, although those changes are not nearly as extreme.

The preferred one-day outfit retains the canary yellow, while the alternative strip is green. The only change to the Test uniform is the logo on the sleeve of the new apparel sponsor, Asics.

White, who leads the Twenty20 squad to South Africa on Saturday for two games on October 13 and 16, highlighted the benefit of black being a 'slimming'colour.

Warner blasts NSW into semis

David Warner blasted an unbeaten 135 runs to set up a 46-run victory for New South Wales (NSW) over the Chennai Super Kings and ensure a place in the semi-finals of the CLT20 in Chennai on Tuesday.

Chasing 202 off 17 overs in order to qualify, Chennai were never in the hunt, as first Stuart Clark and then Steve O'Keefe ripped the heart out of the Super Kings' line-up, leaving them staggering on 111/5 in the 14th over, reports Supersport.

To put the finishing touches on a golden evening, Warner also took two catches and effected a run-out.

O'Keefe bagged three wickets for 28 runs, to top the bowling.

Earlier, having elected to bat first, Warner's blitzkrieg boosted New South Wales's score to 201 for two.

Warner and Shane Watson added 54 runs for the first wicket before the latter tried to sweep Ravichandran Ashwin, but he fetched the ball too far outside off and Mahendra Singh Dhoni completed the catch.

Steve Smith (31) supported Warner well, and the pair put together 101 runs for the second wicket.

Warner was unstoppable, batting both right-and left-handed, connecting with nearly all of his switch-hits.

He faced only 69 deliveries and hit 11 fours and eight maximum, being especially severe on the medium-paced Dwayne Bravo who conceded 24 runs off the penultimate over.

Even Doug Bollinger was not spared, bowling only three overs, but he went for 48 runs.

Chennai have been eliminated from the tournament as the only team to have lost three matches.

Jury sworn in for spot-fixing trial

A year on from the spot-fixing allegations that rocked the cricket world, Pakistan's Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif appeared in court as the trial into one of the sport's greatest controversies began.

Former opening batsman and ex-Test captain Butt and swing bowler Asif sat in at the start of the case at Southwark Crown Court, reports ESPNcricinfo.

They are yet to speak as two hours of legal arguments ensued and an appropriate jury was sworn in after lunch with a mixture of racial backgrounds and sexes (six men and six women). Both players were asked if they had any objection to the jury formed and they said: 'No objections'.

Just 30 minutes was required after the lunch break to settle on a jury and Justice Cooke informed the court that proceedings would resume at ten the following morning.

Cooke told the jury: "I think you will find this an interesting and unusual case."

He also suggested that some of them would be aware of the case because of its high-profile nature but they were ordered not to research it or to discuss the case outside of the jury room

Butt and Asif, who flew in at the weekend from Lahore, are facing the possibility of a custodial sentence if deemed guilty, though both are pleading not guilty. They are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord's Test in August last year when they allegedly conspired to bowl pre-determined no-balls.

Both wearing suits, without a tie, they sat in a dock sealed off by a Perspex screen with holes in for hearing purposes. Butt sat alone and listened intently, often leaning forward with a concentrated look on his face. Asif was accompanied by a Punjabi interpreter.

Butt's barrister, Ali Bajwa QC, immediately informed Justice Cooke that his client did not require the services of an interpreter because he had a confident grasp of English.

Behind the players' dock sat interested journalists taking up every seat in the public gallery. They would no doubt have been pleased when Justice Cooke noted early on that they could 'tweet' from the courtroom as long as they did it quietly.

With reporting restrictions in place, the detail of the legal arguments cannot be repeated at this stage.

But Justice Cooke did agree to three clauses that he later read out to potential jurors who were walked into the courtroom. They were told they would need to be available for up to five weeks, and were also informed that they would need to fill out forms asking three questions and if they answered 'yes' to any of them they could not sit in the jury.

The questions were: 1) Have they or any family members ever worked as a professional journalist or currently work in that capacity. 2) Do they or any family members earn their living from professional cricket? 3) Are they or family members working in the gambling industry?

Windies land in Dhaka

The West Indies cricket team arrived in Bangladesh on Tuesday.

The Emirates flight carrying the 19-member Caribbean cricketers landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 7:55pm.

The Windies, who flew from Dubai after defeating ICC Associate side Afghanistan by five wickets on Monday, will play two Tests, three ODIs and a Twenty20 international against the Tigers.

But prior to that, the team will play two practice matches on October 7 and 9 at the Fatullah Stadium.

The only T20 between West Indies and Bangladesh will be played on October 11 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. On October 13 and 15 they will go head-to-head in the first two one-dayers at the same venue. These are to be day-night matches.

The last ODI is to be played at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on October 18. The first Test will commence there on October 21.

The second and last Test match will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium from October 29.

After the month long tour, the team is scheduled to leave on November 3.