Covers.com's power top five: Women's tennis Mon, Feb 12, 2007By Jon Campbell Jon Campbell doesn’t let a silly thing like a points system get in the way of telling you who are the real top five players are in women’s tennis. He brings you Covers.com’s top five power players on the WTA circuit heading into mid-February’s betting action. 1. Serena Williams – Serena remains No. 1 with us even though she’s been resting since her win at the Australian Open and has announced she’s pulling out of the WTA Sony Ericsson Bangalore Open this week with the flu. Her gritty performance at the first Grand Slam of the season shows she still has the power and the tenacity to win when she needs to. The one concern is how sick she is with this flu virus – Serena can’t afford to take too much time away from conditioning right now. She has played just two events since returning from her knee injury. 虽然从澳网後就休息了并因感冒退出Bangalore 但Serena对我们来说仍然是第一 他在澳网的勇敢表现展现了当他需要时仍然有那种坚韧跟力量 唯一麻烦的是他的感冒程度 小威不可以浪费太多时间 他复出後才打了两个比赛 2. Justine Henin – She is officially back to her maiden name and I must confess I won’t miss writing out her hyphenated handle any more. Though 1H is missing a name, her game isn’t missing much. She may have lost in the semifinals at the Gaz de France to Lucie Safarova, but don’t take Safarova lightly – more on that later. Henin may face some tough matches coming up and she may hit some mental tests as she goes through the tribulations of a divorce. Her overall game is too good, however, to drop down the list just yet. We’ll have to see some more losses from the world No. 2 before we can bump her down any lower than this. 3. Maria Sharapova – It might be hard for some to believe I would put Sharapova this low, but her health isn’t doing her any favors right now. She pulled out of the Pan Pacific Open with a hamstring injury - down 6-0, 1-0 in the second set – in the semifinals against Ana Ivanovich. Sharapova says she injured the leg in the Australian Open and it leaves me wondering about her fitness. She looked like she was struggling at times throughout the Aussie and at first I thought it was simply the heat. Now I wonder if her fitness may be the reason why she had difficulty with her first serves later in the tournament in Melbourne. 4. Kim Clijsters – Clijsters took last week off to rest an ailing hip, so she could play in the Proximus Diamond Games in her home country of Belgium this week. You just know she is up for this tournament and as long as she can stay healthy, there’s no reason why she can’t do some damage there. Clijsters has one title and a semifinals appearance from the first Grand Slam of 2007 and she is playing solid tennis. One thing to note – don’t take her on any futures bets to win at Roland Garros just yet – she has stated she might skip the event to give her more rest leading up to Wimbeldon. 5. Lucie Safarova – Some of you might think I’m crazy for putting Safarova here and some of you are simply wondering who she is. She is the just-turned 20-year-old Czech star who is quietly taking the tennis world by storm this year. The world No. 26 has already beaten Amelie Mauresmo, Nicole Vaidisova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Justine Henin in 2007 and the only three opponents who’ve managed to get the better of her are Serena, Vaidisova, and Nadia Petrova. Both Vaidisova and Petrova rank in the top 10 and you can see we believe Williams will be there in no time. How has she done it? Safarova has surprising power for her size and a solid backhand that makes it difficult to catch her out of position. She won't be bullied around the court and any of the world's top players should be nervous to face her. Safarova's favorite surface is clay, so she is a player to watch out for as the dirt season approaches. Bumped - Mauresmo fell from the list since our last rankings. She failed to reach the quarters at the Aussie Open and she fell in the semis in her next tournament back. She isn't looking as sharp as the player we saw early on in 2006. In danger of dropping - Clijsters and Sharapova. Both ladies have nagging injuries that could see them fall down the list if they don't get straightened out. -- --

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