Lindsay Davenport finished the year as WTA world No. 1 for the second time in her career, though Jennifer Capriati was named the Player of the Year. Davenport won seven tournaments during the season, including two Tier I events. Capriati won three tournaments during the season, including two majors at the Australian Open and the French Open, as well as a Tier I event.
The WTA Tour is the elite tour for professional women's tennis organised by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). The WTA Tour includes the four Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tour Championships and the WTA Tier I, Tier II, Tier III, Tier IV and Tier V events. ITF tournaments are not part of the WTA Tour, although they award points for the WTA World Ranking.
The year-end number one in 2000 and thus the No. 1 player as 2001 begun, Martina Hingis started the new season off well by winning the title at the Adidas International over nemesis Lindsay Davenport. The two looked like they might meet again in the Australian Open final: Hingis beat Venus Williams in her semifinal, but Davenport was then surprised by a resurgent Jennifer Capriati, who was enjoying a dream run to her first Grand Slam final. Going against the odds, Capriati also scalped Hingis to win her first ever Slam title and re-entered the top 10 in the rankings after a near-eight year absence, a record gap.
Jennifer Capriati topped her comeback with her first and second Grand Slam titles during 2001, and a brief stay at No. 1 in October.
The Pacific Life Open saw an all-teen battle commence in its championship match, with 19-year-old Serena Williams reclaiming the title she first won in 1999 by beating 17-year-old Kim Clijsters in the final. Serena's older sister, Venus, responded by winning March's other big title, the Ericsson Open, surviving a nail-biter against Australian Open champion Capriati.
As the clay court season begun in April, Mauresmo continued to enjoy a strong run of form to win her third straight title on the green clay courts of the Bausch & Lomb Championships. Her 16-match win streak, however, was stopped by Hingis in the quarterfinals of the Family Circle Cup—a tournament that saw Capriati win her first Tier I title since the Canadian Open in 1991, defeating Hingis in three sets.
Moving on to the red clay courts, Venus Williams showed devastating form at the Betty Barclay Cup, losing just 12 games en route to the title. Mauresmo once again posted impressive results, taking down Hingis and Capriati to win the Eurocard German Open, and making the final at the Italian Open—only being stopped by Yugoslav teenager Jelena Dokić who was enjoying a career best week to win her first ever singles title.
Kim Clijsters finished the year at No. 5 in the world after a breakthrough year, including making her first Slam final.
The French Open provided shocks from early on, with clay court standouts and favourites Mauresmo and Venus Williams both crashing out in the first round. The two upsets blew the bottom half of the draw wide open, allowing Kim Clijsters to reach her first major final, knocking out compatriot Justine Henin in the first all-Belgian semifinal in Grand Slam history. Over on the top half, things went more to plan, with Capriati and Hingis setting up a rematch of that year's Australian Open final. Capriati eased through that, but the final proved to be the bigger challenge. After being two points from defeat on numerous occasions, she eventually triumphed over Clijsters in a 12–10 third set to continue her faultless 14–0 record in Grand Slam play that year.
Wimbledon also opened with an upset: World No. 1 Hingis crashed out in straight sets against Virginia Ruano Pascual, repeating her first round exit of 1999. Lindsay Davenport had returned to action on the grass after missing the entire clay season due to a right knee bone bruise, and instantly established herself as a threat with a title run at the Britannic Asset Championships. She easily advanced to the semifinals, before losing in a rematch of the 2000 final to Venus Williams. On the other side of the draw, Henin snapped Capriati's Grand Slam win streak to become the second straight Belgian player to compete in a major final. However, like Clijsters before her, she went down to the favourite, Williams, who became only the fourth woman in the Open era to win consecutive Wimbledon titles whilst winning her third Grand Slam overall.
Americans players dominated their home turf during the summer hard court swing, with Venus Williams proving to be the standout player for the second straight year. Despite losing to Meghann Shaughnessy at the Bank of the West Classic, she won two events: the Acura Classic and Pilot Pen Tennis, allowing her to head into her US Open title defence on a 9-match winning streak. Davenport also stamped herself as a major contender with a 13–3 win–loss record during the American hard court tournaments, including a title at the estyle.com Classic. Meanwhile, Serena Williams won the other big US Open warm-up tournament, the Rogers AT&T Cup.
Lindsay Davenport won a tour-leading seven titles and finished the year as the No. 1 ranked player.
That year's US Open provided the first ever all-Williams final between sisters Venus and Serena, after both upset the world's top two players in their respective semifinals, Hingis and Capriati. In a historic final that was the first woman's final to be played in prime time, Venus beat her little sister to defend her title and repeat the Wimbledon-US Open double she also did the previous year. It was the first all-sister final at a Grand Slam event since the 1884 Wimbledon Championships, between the Watson sisters, Maud and Lilian.
Davenport proved to be the standout player during the indoor season, winning three tournaments in consecutive weeks: the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, the Swisscom Challenge and the Generali Ladies Linz, repeating the achievement she also did in 1998. Also performing well were Dokić, who won two titles at the AIG Japan Open and the Kremlin Cup, just two results that capped off her breakthrough season with a rise into the top 10 in the world; and Seles, who finished her season with a 13-match winning streak. Meanwhile, World No. 579 Angelique Widjaja became the lowest-ranked player ever to win a Tour title at the place of her home tournament, the Wismilak International. Off-court, tour stalwarts Nathalie Tauziat and Anke Huber both announced their retirements from singles play.
Elsewhere, Capriati ascended to the No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career on October 15 after an injury caused Hingis to be unable to defend her points from the previous year. Hingis, who had held the No. 1 ranking for the entire season to that point, was also forced to withdraw from the Sanex Championships.
That year's Sanex Championships was also missing Venus Williams, who had to withdraw with a wrist injury. In her absence, sister Serena won the title despite not playing since her U.S. Open final loss to Venus, becoming the first player to win the year-ending championship in their debut appearance. Davenport made the final, but had to default to Williams due to a bone bruise. Nevertheless, with Capriati's quarterfinal loss to Sandrine Testud, Davenport's final appearance was enough for her to gain the No. 1 ranking by just 10 points, her second time in the year-end No. 1 position following 1998.
Schedule
The table below shows the 2001 WTA Tour schedule.[1][2]
Key
Grand Slam events
Year-end championships
Tier I events
Tier II events
Tier III events
Tier IV and V events
Team events
January
Week
Tournament
Champions
Runners-up
Semifinalists
Quarterfinalists
1 Jan
Hopman Cup Perth, Australia Hopman Cup Hard (i) – 8 teams (RR)
United States – 25 (Auckland, Australian Open, Tokyo Pan Pacific, Oklahoma City, Scottsdale, Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Hamburg, French Open, Eastbourne, Wimbledon, San Diego, Manhattan Beach, Toronto, New Haven, U.S. Open, Bahia, Quebec City, Tokyo Japan Open, Filderstadt, Shanghai, Zurich, Linz and Munich Championships)
Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach is an American former professional tennis player. Davenport was ranked singles world No. 1 for a total of 98 weeks, and was the year-end singles world No. 1 four times. She also held the doubles world No. 1 ranking for 32 weeks.
Venus Ebony Starr Williams is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Justine Henin is a Belgian former world No. 1 tennis player. She spent a total of 117 weeks as the world No. 1 and was the year-end No. 1 in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Henin, coming from a country with limited success in tennis, helped establish Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis alongside Kim Clijsters, and led the country to its first Fed Cup crown in 2001. She was known for her all-court style of play and for being one of the few female players to use a single-handed backhand.
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian former professional tennis player. Clijsters reached the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003. She won six major titles, four in singles and two in doubles.
Jennifer Maria Capriati is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. A member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, she won three singles Grand Slam titles and was the gold medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
The 2005 WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2005 tennis season. The 2005 WTA Tour included the four Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tour Championships and the WTA Tier I, Tier II, Tier III, Tier IV and Tier V events. ITF tournaments were not part of the WTA Tour, although they award points for the WTA World Ranking.
The 2006 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour was the 36th season since the founding of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced on January 2, 2006, and concluded on November 12, 2006, after 61 events.
Anna Aleksandrovna Smashnova is a Soviet-born Israeli former tennis player. She retired from professional tour after Wimbledon 2007.
Serena Williams defeated her sister Venus Williams in the final, 7–6(7–4), 3–6, 6–4 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2003 Australian Open. It was her fourth consecutive major singles triumph, completing the "Serena Slam", both a non-calendar year Grand Slam and the career Grand Slam. It was also Venus' record fourth consecutive runner-up finish at a major, losing every final to Serena. Serena saved two match points en route to the title, against Kim Clijsters in the semifinals.
Defending champion Venus Williams defeated Justine Henin in the final, 6–1, 3–6, 6–0 to win the ladies' singles tennis title at the 2001 Wimbledon Championships. It was her second Wimbledon singles title and third major singles title overall.
Jennifer Capriati defeated Kim Clijsters in the final, 1–6, 6–4, 12–10 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2001 French Open. Clijsters became the first Belgian woman to reach a major singles final, having won an all-Belgian semifinal against Justine Henin for the honor.
The 2007 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2007 tennis season. The calendar comprises the Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tier I-IV Events, the Fed Cup and the year-end championships.
The 2004 WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2004 season. The 2004 WTA Tour calendar comprised the Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tier I-V Events, the Fed Cup, the Summer Olympic Games and the year-end championships.
The 2002 Sanex WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2002 tennis season. The WTA Tour calendar comprised the Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tier I-V Events, the Fed Cup and the year-end championships.
The 2000 Sanex WTA Tour was the 30th season since the founding of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced on January 3, 2000, and concluded on November 13, 2000, after 58 events. For this season, a new event was added: the State Farm Classic in Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S. It also saw the return of the China Open which was moved to Shanghai, after last being held in Beijing in 1996.
The 2009 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour was the 37th season since the founding of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced on January 5, 2009, and concluded on November 8, 2009, after 56 events.
Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva is a Russian former professional tennis player. She won the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, having previously won the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She won 16 WTA singles titles, reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open and reached seven other Grand Slam semifinals. Dementieva was also part of the Russian team that won the 2005 Fed Cup. In doubles, she won the 2002 WTA Championships with Janette Husárová and was the runner-up in two US Open doubles finals – in 2002 with Husárová and in 2005 with Flavia Pennetta. Dementieva achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 3, which was accomplished on 6 April 2009. She announced her retirement on 29 October 2010, after her final match at the 2010 WTA Championships. Between 2003 and 2010, she only ended one year, in 2007, outside the top 10. She is considered to be one of the most talented players never to have won a Grand Slam tournament.
Kim Clijsters defeated the defending champion Serena Williams in the final, 7–5, 6–3 to win the singles tennis title at the 2002 WTA Tour Championships. It was her first Tour Finals singles title, fourth title of the season, and tenth career singles title.
Serena Williams won the singles tennis title at the 2001 WTA Tour Championships by default, after Lindsay Davenport withdrew from the final. It was her first Tour Finals title.
Serena Williams's 2003 tennis season ended abruptly after Wimbledon, as Williams underwent surgery on the quadriceps tendon in her knee at the start of August. Initially she was expected to be out for six to eight weeks.
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Lindsay Davenport (7)
Rennae Stubbs 
Justine Henin 
Daniela Hantuchová 
Barbara Schwartz 
