THIS WEEK: The German Open last year was full of extraordinary upsets. Anna Kournikova beat seeds Majoli, Hingis and Sanchez-Vicario before losing in the semi-finals to eventual champion Conchita Martinez! The losing finalist was then-unheralded Amelie Mauresmo, who took out both Davenport and Novotna. With that tournament dropping off the computer, Kournikova falls from 11 to 14 (WTA #15 -> #20), Martinez from 10 to 15 (WTA #17 -> #22), and Mauresmo from 16 to 19 (WTA #10 -> #18). This makes room for WTA #9 Nathalie Tauziat in the SRI Rankings top 10 for the first time ever.

This week's debutant in the Top 50 is WTA #91 Sandra Nacuk, who took a set off Graf after a promising run in qualification. But that is hardly worth mentioning compared with the debut of Belgian Justine Henin, who won her first tournament on the WTA Tour in Antwerp. She's a long way from playing 20 matches and qualifying on the SRI Rankings computer, but her form was incredibly impressive. In the final, she beat SRI no. 41/WTA #33 Sarah Pitkowski 6-1, 6-2! Based on such limited data, it's hardly worth mentioning that the SRI computer ranks her higher than it did Lucic after her maiden tournament win (and that was "top ten").

Fifth annual French Open Preview issue next week - and I've finally got the surface information to make it worthwhile.

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #W69. 18th May 1999
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	WTA Rank
1	Lindsay Davenport	1752	0	2
2	Martina Hingis	1722	0	1
3	Steffi Graf	1645	0	6
4	Venus Williams	1615	0	5
5	Monica Seles	1518	0	3
6	Serena Williams	1487	0	10
7	Jana Novotna	1437	0	4
8	Mary Pierce	1310	0	8
9	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	1264	0	7
10	Nathalie Tauziat	1152	+4	9
11	Sandrine Testud	1137	+1	12
12	Patty Schnyder	1125	+1	11
13	Dominique van Roost	1102	+2	13
14	Anna Kournikova	1101	-3	20
15	Conchita Martinez	1092	-5	22
16	Chanda Rubin	1063	+1	23
17	Julie Halard-Decugis	1054	+5	16
18	Barbara Schett	1051	0	15
19	Amelie Mauresmo	1041	-3	18
20	Mary Joe Fernandez	1022	-1	41
21	Elena Likhovtseva	1013	+3	21
22	Irina Spirlea	1007	-2	19
23	Natasha Zvereva	999	-2	17
24	Amanda Coetzer	984	-1	14
25	Anke Huber	972	0	28
26	Amy Frazier	963	0	30
27	Silvia Farina	922	0	25
28	Henrieta Nagyova	921	0	24
29	Lisa Raymond	894	+2	37
30	Ruxandra Dragomir	882	+5	27
31	Cara Black	849	+3	32
32	Nathalie Dechy	846	-2	29
33	Iva Majoli	843	-4	36
34	Magui Serna	838	-1	26
35	Ai Sugiyama	816	-3	31
36	Virginia Ruano Pascual	776	0	39
37	Corina Morariu	769	+1	35
38	Jennifer Capriati	764	+6	113
39	Silvija Talaja	764	+2	68
40	Ines Gorrochategui	754	-3	111
41	Sarah Pitkowski	751	+8	33
42	Fabiola Zuluaga	742	+1	49
43	Barbara Rittner	741	+2	46
44	Gala Leon Garcia	735	-2	43
45	Karina Habsudova	729	+7	56
46	Elena Dementieva	725	-7	126
47	Sandra Nacuk	725	+24	91
48	Sylvia Plischke	724	-8	34
49	Mariaan de Swardt	716	+2	45
50	Sabine Appelmans	713	+8	74
NQ	Magdalena Grzybowska	796	(46)	122
51	Nadejda Petrova	711	-3	132
52	Anna Smashnova	710	+7	38
54	Elena Tatarkova	702	-7	48
60	Tina Pisnik	668	-10	152

Rating Winners:
Sandra Nacuk	+90	(2R+Q Berlin 99)
Ruxandra Dragomir	+69	(SF Berlin 99, 1R 98)
Julie Halard-Decugis	+45	(RU Berlin 99, 2R 98)
Lisa Raymond	+41	(3R Berlin 99, 2R 98)
Sarah Pitkowski	+40	(RU Antwerp 99)
Jennifer Capriati	+35	(2R Berlin 99, 1R 98)

Rating Losers:
Conchita Martinez	-75	(W Berlin 98, 3R 99)
Anna Kournikova	-64	(SF def Hingis Berlin 98, 1R 99)
Amelie Mauresmo	-57	(RU def Davenport, Novotna Berlin 98, 3R 99)
Serena Williams	-38	(QF ret Berlin 99)

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

blurb version 3.0