By Etienne Stekelenburg
August 11 2003

By defeating Lindsay Davenport at the JP Morgan Chase final on Sunday, the Belgian Kim Clijsters reached the nr.1 spot on the WTA ranking for the first time. She took the nr 1 spot from the injured Serena Williams who was leading Clijsters with only 45 points at the start of the L.A. tournament. Clijsters is the first to reach the number 1 spot without winning a Grand Slam first. She is the 12th player who reached the toprank since the WTA ranking were started in 1975.

Clijsters said that she never focused to be at the number one spot but just winning matches seems to be her goal. Her coach confirmed that and adds that she just doesn’t give up that easily.

To achieve this new point in her career Clijsters had to beat Lindsay Davenport in the final. It took her three sets, winning the first and third set. 6-1 3-6 6-1. In both the first and the last set Clijsters had Davenport running all over the court. Both her offensive and defensive gameplay was too good for Davenport who said that Kim could get better if she keeps up with performning like this.

Davenport was bothered by a foot injury in the third set at 3-1 which made her an easy prey for Clijsters who broke Davenport on love and finished the match on her own serve.

Serena Williams was at the number one spot for 57 weeks in a row. Due to a left knee injury she wont be able to defend her title at the US Open this year.