Paul Lewis: Time the WTA took quality over quantity

It's time the Women's Tennis Association mended its ludicrous world rankings that have Dinara Safina as the world No. 1 and Serena Williams not.

Here's what the rest of the world knows: Serena Williams is the best female tennis player on the planet. Dinara Safina isn't.

But the computer which compiles the WTA rankings has Safina top of the heap because of consistency. The rankings measure not who wins what, but who plays the most and gets the furthest - and the No. 1 ranking comes with some obvious commercial benefits.

It's a crock. This mindless adherence to who-plays-more not only damages the credibility of women's tennis but also does not do Safina any favours.

Safina is rewarded financially and status-wise by a system that values consistency rather than the quality of tournaments won. She has contested 15 finals in the past 12 months and won seven.

Williams, on the other hand, has won Grand Slams but, outside that, her last tour victory was in April 2008.

The credibility gap is caused by the fact that, before the comeback of Belgium's Kim Clijsters (and the apparently impending comeback of her countrywoman Justine Henin), women's tennis worldwide could be summarised thus in terms of quality: the Williams sisters and everyone else.

Safina is one of the few with the power and shots to threaten Venus and Serena - although whether she has the mental strength is another matter. She has had a couple of alarming meltdowns in Grand Slam tournaments which only serve to emphasise the appalling gap between Safina and the No. 1 position and the relentless pressure on her.

Talk about having to live up to your billing. Safina rarely does.

In the past 12 months, while Williams won the 2008 US Open, 2009 Australian Open and 2009 Wimbledon, Safina couldn't even win a set in her two Grand Slam title matches, against Williams in Melbourne and Svetlana Kuznetsova in Paris. She also lost the 2008 French Open final to Ana Ivanovic in straight sets.

That's the problem with the WTA system - it makes the No.1 player in the world play all the time. That's good on one level; lousy on others.

Safina looks like a woman under pressure every time she takes the court. At the US Open, where she made an early exit at the hands of a comparative unknown, Safina looked tired and out of sorts. She said she felt tension about trying to break through at a major and fatigue from a hectic schedule.

She has played 67 matches this season and won three tournaments - at Madrid, Slovenia and Rome. That compares to 52 for No. 2 Serena Williams, who has won twice.

Ridiculously, Safina will keep that No. 1 ranking despite committing 125 unforced errors and 35 double-faults over nine sets of US Open tennis. Is that the profile of a world No. 1?

The clear implication is that Safina is suffering from her own mis-ranking. She is playing constantly to keep that ranking; to feed the hungry computer - quantity over quality.

"Just playing, playing, playing, playing," Safina said when asked to explain her struggles. "Let's just say sometimes you need some time to work on something. I don't even have time for myself to relax and to calm down and to say, OK, let's practise."

Her face and her slumped body language also strongly suggest that, every time she walks on the court, she is hearing an underlying drum beat in the noise from the crowd: not good enough ... not good enough ... not good enough.

If you need more proof, look no further than the furore over the change in court at the US Open when Safina and her eventual conqueror, the Czech Petra Kvitova (ranked 72), were shifted to an outside court to make way for the men's match between James Blake (US) and Tommy Robredo (Spain).

Serena Williams has made pointed remarks about who really is the best player but agreed with Safina about the slight of the changed court.

Safina said: "I think it's very unfair to choose, I mean, best player in the world, to put on Armstrong [the outside court]. I don't think it's a fair decision they made. Their answer was, 'we prefer a five set match than three sets'." Williams agreed, saying the men's match should have been moved.

But, no ... a world No. 1 should be able to win anywhere; on a traffic intersection; in a minefield or on the frozen tundra, surrounded by polar bears. Williams' agreement on this point is more about the battle for equality with male players but I do not think that is what provoked the change of court decision.

Blake is an American. Safina is not (and neither is Kvitova) and, in the eyes of most people in tennis, is a flawed if not outright unworthy No. 1. I'd bet the decision didn't take very long - and was made on a qualitative basis, as opposed to a computer ranking; and that is how it should be. With Safina's exit, they were ultimately proved right, what's more.

So it's time to take the obviously unbearable pressure off Safina and move to some sort of qualitative analysis for the world rankings.

It's hard to hold up boxing as an example of anything but at least boxing's own rankings (albeit heavily flawed themselves when viewed over all the competing organisations) contain some sort of qualitative analysis.

That's what Safina needs. Get her off the top. Let her develop as a player, not a slave to a computer. It'd be nice to see her smile.