THIS WEEK: And so ends another year on the WTA Tour. Martina Hingis beat Lindsay Davenport in the final of the Tour Championships, to suggest that next season will feature a great tussle between the two. I've already got my tickets for the Australian Open.

And who does the SRI Rankings computer select as the best of the year? Well, only five points separate the two, Hingis having made a great comeback in the last month, but Davenport is the SRI Rankings year-end number one. I.e., for a change, we agree with the WTA computer and disagree with Robert Waltz. After Hingis at 2, there is a 80-point gap to WTA #9 Steffi Graf and WTA #5 Venus Williams, then a similar gap to WTA #6 Monica Seles, and another 70 points back to WTA #3 Jana Novotna.

The final Tour week also saw Julie Halard-Decugis (up from 22 to 21, WTA #26 -> #22) thrash Fang Li (up from 49 to 45, WTA #43 -> #40) in the final at Pattaya, with the underrated Silvija Talaja making the semi-finals to consolidate in the SRI Rankings Top 50 while breaking into the WTA top 100.

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #W54 (Year-End Special). 29th Nov 1998
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	WTA Rank
1	Lindsay Davenport 1658	0	2	1
2	Martina Hingis 1653	0	1	2
3	Steffi Graf 1575	0	5	9
4	Venus Williams 1565	0	18	5
5	Monica Seles 1484	+1	4	6
6	Jana Novotna 1416	-1	3	3
7	Mary Pierce 1381	+1	6	7
8	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 1352	-1	11	4
9	Serena Williams 1288	0	(87)	20
10	Anna Kournikova 1211	0	23	13
11	Patty Schnyder 1204	0	17	11
12	Conchita Martinez 1202	0	9	8
13	Nathalie Tauziat 1099	0	16	10
14	Dominique van Roost 1043	+1	26	12
15	Sandrine Testud 1037	-1	15	14
16	Irina Spirlea 1033	+3	13	15
17	Anke Huber 1004	+1	10	21
18	Amanda Coetzer 998	-1	8	17
19	Natasha Zvereva 993	-3	29	16
20	Lisa Raymond 954	0	24	27
21	Julie Halard-Decugis 925	+1	NQ	22
22	Barbara Schett 908	-1	36	23
23	Ai Sugiyama 891	0	37	18
24	Mirjana Lucic 885	0	14	51
25	Elena Likhovtseva 881	0	33	26
26	Magui Serna 871	0	57	24
27	Amy Frazier 861	0	34	42
28	Iva Majoli 831	+1	12	25
29	Silvia Farina 829	+1	58	19
30	Henrieta Nagyova 827	-2	35	28
31	Virginia Ruano Pascual 822	0	41	32
32	Chanda Rubin 809	0	27	34
33	Amelie Mauresmo 794	0	90	29
34	Sabine Appelmans 774	+2	19	49
35	Anne Miller 768	-1	83	46
36	Elena Tatarkova 767	-1	(166)	47
37	Magdalena Grzybowska 758	0	50	52
38	Maria Alejandra Vento 751	0	46	43
39	Mariaan de Swardt 747	0	(179)	35
40	Barbara Paulus 745	0	20	45
41	Joannette Kruger 736	0	38	30
42	Ruxandra Dragomir 731	+1	32	38
43	Sylvia Plischke 719	-1	(171)	41
44	Barbara Rittner 716	0	77	66
45	Fang Li 698	+4	(123)	40
46	Sarah Pitkowski 690	-1	67	36
47	Silvija Talaja 689	+3	(159)	89
48	Cara Black 684	-2	NQ	44
49	Kvetoslava Hrdlickova 684	-1	NQ	57
50	Tamarine Tanasugarn 684	+4	59	37
51	Corina Morariu 673	0	81	31
52	Anna Smashnova 671	-5	(155)	50
54	Tara Snyder 664	-2	(157)	33
61	Alexandra Fusai 639	-1	80	39

Rating Winners:
Martina Hingis	+54	(W Tour Champs. 98, QF 97)
Irina Spirlea	+42	(SF Tour Champs. 98, SF 97)
Monica Seles	+31	(QF Tour Champs. 98, 1R 97)
Lindsay Davenport	+30	(RU Tour Champs. 98, 1R 97)
Dominique van Roost	+25	(QF Tour Champs. 98, RU Pattaya 97)
Julie Halard-Decugis	+21	(W Pattaya 98)

Rating Losers:
Jana Novotna	-51	(W Tour Champs. 97, 1R 98)
Henrieta Nagyova	-17	(W Pattaya 97, 1R 98)
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	-14	(QF Tour Champs. 97, 1R 98)
Natasha Zvereva	-14	(1R Tour Champs. 98)

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

blurb version 3.0