THIS WEEK: Regrettably, this is the final issue of the SRI Rankings Top 50 Women for the foreseeable future. The closure of Chris Smith's site, and consequently that of Michael Duffy, has meant that the only ways to receive results are through the WTA web site (what a nightmare!) or newsgroup posts (keep it up, Mr. Blue!). I don't have the time to track down all the results and make sure it converts properly into a computer-readable format for the SRI ranking program.

We'll finish with the end-of-1997 rankings. You may remember that we tipped that Hingis would be beaten in the WTA Tour Champion- ships, but for Pierce to do it was quite a surprise. Jana Novotna finished the year at 3 (up 2) with a fitting win.

Many thanks for all the comments I've received over the past year, and especially to all my email subscribers. The Men's rankings, which are now nearly three years old, will continue for as long as the ATP keeps its act together in providing results.

A couple of quick predictions: Serena is a better player than Venus, and Hingis is only just odds-on for the Australian Open. It's 42 degrees C (108 F) here in Melbourne tomorrow, and if that's any indication the women will need a lot of stamina to keep winning.

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #W35 (Final). January 1998
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	WTA Rank
1	Martina Hingis	1779	0	1
2	Lindsay Davenport	1528	0	3
3	Jana Novotna	1458	+2	2
4	Monica Seles	1455	-1	5
5	Steffi Graf	1274	-1	28
6	Mary Pierce	1263	0	7
7	Mary Joe Fernandez	1215	0	12
8	Amanda Coetzer	1183	0	4
9	Conchita Martinez	1146	0	11
10	Anke Huber	1142	0	14
11	Arantxa Sanchez Vicario	1109	+2	9
12	Iva Majoli	1103	-1	6
13	Irina Spirlea	1101	+1	8
14	Mirjana Lucic	1095	-2	48
15	Sandrine Testud	1055	0	13
16	Nathalie Tauziat	1021	+1	10
17	Patty Schnyder	995	-1	26
18	Venus Williams	979	0	21
19	Sabine Appelmans	963	0	16
20	Barbara Paulus	963	+4	23
21	Yayuk Basuki	957	0	22
22	Brenda Schultz-McCarthy	948	-2	15
23	Anna Kournikova	947	-1	30
24	Lisa Raymond	940	-1	17
25	Miriam Oremans	923	+1	46
26	Dominique van Roost	909	-1	18
27	Chanda Rubin	906	0	31
28	Kimberly Po	885	0	24
29	Natasha Zvereva	876	0	25
30	Judith Wiesner	849	+3	25
31	Naoko Sawamatsu	841	+1	33
32	Ruxandra Dragomir	840	-2	19
33	Elena Likhovtseva	839	-2	39
34	Amy Frazier	827	0	43
35	Henrieta Nagyova	824	+1	32
36	Barbara Schett	788	-1	37
37	Ai Sugiyama	772	0	20
38	Joannette Kruger	755	+1	27
39	Jennifer Capriati	755	-1	124
40	Karina Habsudova	754	+2	29
41	Virginia Ruano-Pascual	748	0	52
42	Sandra Kleinova	741	-2	42
43	Elena Makarova	728	0	74
44	Anne-Gaelle Sidot	721	0	36
45	Rita Grande	718	0	47
46	Maria Alejandra Vento	715	0	38
47	Magdalena Maleeva	711	0	34
48	Maria A. Sanchez Lorenzo	700	0	53
49	Patricia Hy-Boulais	677	0	66
50	Magdalena Grzybowska	670	+1	41
NQ	Serena Williams	1079	NQ	96
58	Silvia Farina	640	+1	35
59	Tamarine Tanasugarn	636	-9	44

Rating Winners:
Henrieta Nagyova	+49	(W Pattaya 97, SF 96)
Irina Spirlea	+28	(SF Tour Champs. 97, 1R 96)
Nathalie Tauziat	+27	(SF Tour Champs. 97)

Rating Losers:
Steffi Graf	-183	(W Tour Champs. 96)
Tamarine Tanasugarn	-36	(RU Pattaya 96, 2R 97)
Ruxandra Dragomir	-21	(W Pattaya 96, SF 97)

[ wo - walkover, wd - withdrew, ret - retired, def - defeated ]

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