Doha, Qatar -The tight race for the year-ending world number one ranking ended in sudden and dramatic fashion Wednesday at the Sony Ericsson Championships when tearful Dinara Safina was forced to quit her match with Jelena Jankovic after 12 minutes due to back pain. With the Russian later withdrawing from the event, the top WTA year-end ranking shifted back to Williams, a winner of 11 career Grand Slam titles.
"My body just gave up," said the 23-year-old Safina. "I did everything possible to play here. I had a cortisone injection yesterday but I could not handle this pain any more."
Williams won the Australian Open and Wimbledon but competed in a scarce only 11 other events outside of the four majors and the year-ender this week.
Safina won three titles this season and played a consistent, if unspectacular, season. She held the top spot for several months, lost it to Williams earlier this month, but was back on top in the latest rankings issued on Monday.
Jankovic, who lost her opening round-robin White group match 24 hours earlier against Victoria Azarenka, took the victory over the injured Safina at 1-1 with just 15 points played.
"It's really unfortunate. Dinara said she had hurt her lower back," said Jankovic. "I wished her well for her recovery. We all have problems with our bodies at this time of the year."
The blink-of-an-eye contest was in sharp contrast to the nearly three hours it took fighting Dane Caroline Wozniacki to rally past Azarenka of Belarus 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.
The struggle featured a massive 39 break points, with Wozniacki rallying from the depths after being crushed in the first set.
The 20-year-old lost her serve eight times over a long evening while Azarenka was broken seven times.
In the evening's final encounter, number one ranking contender Williams was facing her sister Venus, the Doha holder who lost her opening match to Russian Elena Dementieva.
