who is ranked 1 in women's tennis
Simona Halep
title: Venus Williams text: Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 40 in the WTA singles rankings. She is generally regarded as one of the all-time greats of women's tennis and, along with younger sister Serena Williams, is credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour. Williams has been ranked world No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association on three occasions, for a total of 11 weeks. She first reached the No. 1 ranking on February 25, 2002, the first title: Serena Williams text: Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ranked her world No. 1 in singles on eight separate occasions between 2002 and 2017. She reached the No. 1 ranking for the first time on July 8, 2002. On her sixth occasion, she held the ranking for 186 consecutive weeks, tying the record set by Steffi Graf. In total, she has been No. 1 for 319 weeks, which ranks third in the "Open Era" among female players behind Graf and Martina Navratilova. Williams holds the most Grand Slam titles title: Maria Sharapova text: Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (; born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player of Belarusian descent. A United States resident since 1994, Sharapova has competed on the WTA tour since 2001. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions, for a total of 21 weeks. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam. She is also an Olympic medalist, having won silver in women's singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Sharapova became the world No. 1 for the first title: 2017 US Open – Women's Singles text: the first time since the 2009 French Open, was awarded a wildcard into the main draw and advanced to the fourth round, where she lost to Anastasija Sevastova. Garbiñe Muguruza became the new WTA No. 1 player at the end of the tournament despite losing in the fourth round, after Karolína Plíšková (who held the top ranking at the start of the tournament) failed to defend her finalist points from 2016. Eight of the top nine seeds (with the exception of Kerber) were in contention for the no. 1 ranking at the start of the tournament. Venus Williams became the title: 2018 Australian Open – Women's Singles text: 2018 Australian Open – Women's Singles Serena Williams was the defending champion, but chose not to participate this year, stating that she was not fully fit after giving birth to her daughter in September 2017. Caroline Wozniacki became the first Danish player to win a Grand Slam singles title, defeating Simona Halep in the final, 7–6, 3–6, 6–4. Wozniacki also regained the WTA no. 1 singles ranking for the first time since 2012. Both finalists saved match points earlier in the tournament: Halep saved three match points against Lauren Davis in the third round and two match points against Angelique