THIS WEEK: We'll get the first pun of the year out of the way, and just remark that that was a mauresmerizing Australian Open. I was lucky enough to have tickets to the women's semi-finals, and until you've seen Mauresmo's backhand up close you won't believe it. Completely awesome.

But how's her ranking? The WTA gives a huge number of points out in Grand Slam events, so she is up from #29 to #17 there. It's a more modest rise from 32 to 26 on the SRI Rankings Top 50 Women. My feeling is that she needs to be more consistent in day-to-day matches before she can improve on that. I watched a set of her match against Corina Morariu in the first round, and was surprised to find out later that she had won. By the semis, she was on fire.

Like the WTA rankings, the only real movement among the top women this week is Conchita Martinez losing her points from last year's final. Anna Kournikova also lost points, but moved just above her. Three-time champion Martina Hingis is steady at number 2, but her rivals Graf and Williams now drop off the pace.

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #W57. 1st Feb 1999
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	WTA Rank
1	Lindsay Davenport	1735	0	1
2	Martina Hingis	1674	0	2
3	Steffi Graf	1561	0	7
4	Venus Williams	1513	0	6
5	Monica Seles	1505	0	4
6	Jana Novotna	1416	0	3
7	Mary Pierce	1408	0	8
8	Serena Williams	1320	0	24
9	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	1276	0	5
10	Patty Schnyder	1225	0	9
11	Anna Kournikova	1154	+1	12
12	Conchita Martinez	1151	-1	16
13	Nathalie Tauziat	1116	0	10
14	Dominique van Roost	1083	0	11
15	Sandrine Testud	1076	0	14
16	Irina Spirlea	1045	0	13
17	Natasha Zvereva	1015	+3	18
18	Mary Joe Fernandez	1006	NQ	56
19	Barbara Schett	997	+2	19
20	Anke Huber	994	-3	28
21	Julie Halard-Decugis	994	-2	20
22	Amanda Coetzer	987	-4	15
23	Elena Likhovtseva	921	+1	23
24	Lisa Raymond	916	-2	27
25	Magui Serna	907	-2	22
26	Amelie Mauresmo	891	+6	17
27	Chanda Rubin	890	-1	29
28	Amy Frazier	886	-3	33
29	Ai Sugiyama	859	-1	25
30	Silvia Farina	856	-1	21
31	Mirjana Lucic	844	-4	50
32	Iva Majoli	838	-2	26
33	Virginia Ruano Pascual	837	-2	31
34	Henrieta Nagyova	827	-1	30
35	Sabine Appelmans	805	-1	45
36	Anne Miller	789	-1	66
37	Barbara Paulus	769	+1	54
38	Cara Black	751	+7	46
39	Ruxandra Dragomir	749	-3	42
40	Elena Tatarkova	748	-3	48
41	Joannette Kruger	744	+1	34
42	Sarah Pitkowski	741	-1	32
43	Silvija Talaja	733	+9	83
44	Barbara Rittner	726	-5	71
45	Nathalie Dechy	724	-1	44
46	Mariaan de Swardt	711	-6	37
47	Magdalena Grzybowska	707	-4	69
48	Anna Smashnova	705	+6	41
49	Maria Alejandra Vento	704	-2	58
50	Sylvia Plischke	698	+1	43
51	Jennifer Capriati	696	-2	89
52	Maria A. Sanchez Lorenzo	690	+18	40
55	Corina Morariu	667	+2	35
57	Emilie Loit	659	+23	52
60	Yayuk Basuki	653	-14	87
62	Tamarine Tanasugarn	649	-14	55

Rating Winners: (All results at the Australian Open)
Emilie Loit	+95	(4R 99)
Maria A. Sanchez	Lorenzo	+87 (4R 99, 1R 98)
Amelie Mauresmo	+70	(RU 99, 3R 98)

Rating Losers:
Venus Williams	-98	(QF 98, QF 99)
Conchita Martinez	-73	(RU 98, 3R 99)
Steffi Graf	-60	(QF 99)
Tamarine Tanasugarn	-59	(4R 98, 1R 99)
Yayuk Basuki	-58	(4R 98, 1R 99)
Anna Kournikova	-56	(3R 98, 4R 99)
Anke Huber	-48	(SF 98, 2R 99)

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

blurb version 3.0