THIS WEEK: Steffi Graf in the last two weeks has shown that she was worthy of the high rank given to her by the SRI Rankings computer. This week, after winning in Philadelphia, she is up to third, and almost within striking distance of the top!

In this special preview issue of the SRI Rankings Top 50 Women, we show the records of the 16 qualifiers against each other. Lindsay Davenport is on top of the rankings when just these results are taken into account, but there are some interesting statistics. Martina Hingis ranks 5th, with a 17-12 record over the last 12 months. Last year she came into the WTA championships with a 35-3 record against the top 16, where she was upset by Mary Pierce. Pierce has the best raw percentage at 10-4, with losses only to the WTA top 3 - but the fact that these were heavy losses pushes her down to 8th.

Patty Schnyder performs well against top players, as her 10-5 record and 3rd placing shows. There is a large divide after the top 8, all the others having significantly negative records (including a poor 5-16 from Zvereva). The SRI computer gives them virtually no chance of making the final. Odds for winning the championship are given below.

Note that apart from Graf (who has risen from #17 to #12 on the WTA computer), last week's WTA rankings have been used here.

ODDS	Player(s)
2/1	Davenport
4/1	Hingis
6/1	Graf
9/1	Sanchez-Vicario
10/1	Seles, Novotna, Pierce
20/1	Schnyder
33/1	Martinez
66/1	Kournikova, Tauziat
100+	Testud, van Roost, Spirlea, Zvereva, Coetzer

SRI Rankings WTA Champs Special. Top 16 Players Only. 16th Nov 1998
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Win-Loss Record	WTA Rank	SRI Rank (all surfaces)
1	Lindsay Davenport	681	24 - 11	1	1
2	Steffi Graf	654	10 - 5	12	3
3	Patty Schnyder	649	10 - 5	10	11
4	Jana Novotna	638	21 - 10	3	5
5	Martina Hingis	609	17 - 12	2	2
6	Monica Seles	594	13 - 11	6	6
7	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	580	14 - 11	4	7
8	Mary Pierce	567	10 - 4	7	8
9	Anna Kournikova	465	8 - 16	14	10
10	Conchita Martinez	443	8 - 11	8	12
11	Sandrine Testud	416	8 - 12	13	14
12	Nathalie Tauziat	408	7 - 12	9	13
13	Irina Spirlea	342	5 - 14	12	19
14	Amanda Coetzer	333	6 - 10	15	17
15	Dominique van Roost	321	4 - 10	11	15
16	Natasha Zvereva	299	5 - 16	16	16

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #W53. 16th Nov 1998
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	WTA Rank
1	Lindsay Davenport	1628	0	1
2	Martina Hingis	1599	0	2
3	Steffi Graf	1566	+2	12
4	Venus Williams	1558	-1	5
5	Jana Novotna	1467	-1	3
6	Monica Seles	1453	0	6
7	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	1366	0	4
8	Mary Pierce	1361	0	7
9	Serena Williams	1285	0	21
10	Anna Kournikova	1219	+1	14
11	Patty Schnyder	1212	-1	10
12	Conchita Martinez	1205	0	8
13	Nathalie Tauziat	1109	0	9
14	Sandrine Testud	1029	+1	13
15	Dominique van Roost	1018	+2	11
16	Natasha Zvereva	1007	+2	16
17	Amanda Coetzer	1001	+3	15
18	Anke Huber	996	-2	18
19	Irina Spirlea	991	-5	12
20	Lisa Raymond	956	-1	28
21	Barbara Schett	907	0	24
22	Julie Halard-Decugis	904	0	26
23	Ai Sugiyama	889	0	19
24	Mirjana Lucic	881	0	51
25	Elena Likhovtseva	878	+1	27
26	Magui Serna	868	-1	25
27	Amy Frazier	864	+10	50
28	Henrieta Nagyova	844	0	23
29	Iva Majoli	842	-2	22
30	Silvia Farina	832	0	20
31	Virginia Ruano Pascual	822	0	33
32	Chanda Rubin	805	-3	32
33	Amelie Mauresmo	793	-1	29
34	Anne Miller	768	0	45
35	Elena Tatarkova	766	0	47
36	Sabine Appelmans	758	-3	39
37	Magdalena Grzybowska	757	-1	52
38	Maria Alejandra Vento	749	0	41
39	Mariaan de Swardt	747	0	34
40	Barbara Paulus	741	0	46
41	Joannette Kruger	735	+1	30
42	Sylvia Plischke	732	-1	42
43	Ruxandra Dragomir	729	0	36
44	Barbara Rittner	705	0	65
45	Sarah Pitkowski	690	0	37
46	Cara Black	686	0	44
47	Anna Smashnova	684	0	49
48	Kvetoslava Hrdlickova	682	+3	58
49	Fang Li	681	0	43
50	Silvija Talaja	676	+2	113
NQ	Mary Joe Fernandez	943	NQ	54
51	Corina Morariu	672	-1	31
52	Tara Snyder	665	-4	35

Rating Winners:
Amy Frazier	+106	(QF+Q Philadelphia 98, 2R 97)
Steffi Graf	+93	(W Philadelphia 98)

Rating Losers:
Irina Spirlea	-70	(SF Philadelphia 97, 1R 98)
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	-51	(SF Philadelphia 97, 2R 98)
Anke Huber	-48	(QF Philadelphia 97, 1R 98)
Martina Hingis	-39	(W Philadelphia 97, QF 98)
Lindsay Davenport	-38	(RU Philadelphia 97, RU 98)

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

blurb version 3.0