No. 5. A week later, she captured her third Tier I singles title and fourth singles title of the season overall at the Pan Pacific Open, dropping just four games in the final against Kuznetsova. As a result, she entered the top three of the WTA singles rankings for the first time in her career, rising to world No. 3. In November, Safina made her debut at the year-ending WTA Championships but lost in the round robin stage. Nevertheless, she ended the year ranked World No. 3, marking her first finish in the year-end top five and top ten. Safina began her 2009 season by representing Russia at the Hopman Cup alongside her brother, Marat Safin. The pair finished on top of their group by winning all three of their round robin ties and thus progressed to the final, where they lost to their seventh seeded Slovakian opponents, Dominika Cibulková and Dominik Hrbatý. The following week, Safina lost to Dementieva in her first singles final of the year at the Sydney International before defeating Alizé Cornet by winning five consecutive games and saving two match points in the third set of their fourth round encounter, en route to her first Australian Open final and second grand slam singles final overall. In April, Safina became the world No. 1 for the first time in her career after replacing Serena Williams at the top of the WTA Singles Rankings. In doing so, she became the fourth woman (after Kim Clijsters, Amélie Mauresmo and Jelena Janković) to reach the summit of the sport without first winning a Grand Slam singles title. Additionally, she and her brother also became the first siblings to have both reached No. 1 in the WTA and ATP singles rankings respectively. Safina then enjoyed a dominant clay court season, during which she reached the singles finals of all four of her clay court events. She began her reign as world No. 1 with a runner-up finish in Stuttgart before claiming her first (and only) Premier 5 and Premier Mandatory singles titles at the Internazionali d'Italia and Madrid Open with wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova and Caroline Wozniacki in the finals. Safina extended her winning streak to sixteen matches by reaching her third Grand Slam singles final and second consecutive French Open final but Kuznetsova defeated her in straight sets in the pair's third meeting in a final that year. Despite