AFP, St. Petersburg :
Serena Williams, who owns all four tennis Grand Slam titles for the second time in her career, has achieved another historic milestone in the wake of her Wimbledon victory.
The WTA Tour revealed Tuesday that world number one Williams is the first top-ranked player ever with more than twice as many points as her nearest rival.
Records dating to the WTA’s 1973 founding show the 33-year-old American’s domination to be the greatest of any point in the rankings’ history, with Williams on 13,161 points and Russia’s second-ranked Maria Sharapova on 6,490.
In addition to sweeping the US, French and Australian Opens plus Wimbledon over the past 12 months, Williams won last year’s WTA Finals in Singapore and at Miami last March to help build her runaway rankings margin.
Williams beat Sharapova in the Wimbledon semi-finals and downed Spain’s Garbine Muguruza in last Saturday’s final to win her sixth Wimbledon crown and 21st Grand Slam title overall.
That puts Williams one shy of matching Steffi Graf for the Open Era-record of 22 Grand Slam singles crowns and just three shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24.
Williams has won as many Grand Slam titles as all other active women’s players combined, including Sharapova’s five and seven for Venus Williams, Serena’s older sister. Petra Kvitova,Svetlana Kuznetsova and Victoria Azarenka have won two major titles each while Samantha Stosur,Ana Ivanovic and Francesca Schiavone own one each.
