Tennis: Venus tops rankings for first time

Venus Williams has become the first black player to hold the top spot in the WTA computer rankings.

Williams has 24 career titles, including four at majors - Wimbledon and the US Open in 2000-01. She also won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics.

Lindsay Davenport finished last year as the WTA's top-ranked player, despite not winning a Grand Slam event in 2001. That prompted the WTA to change its ranking system to assign more points to Grand Slam events and a handful of other top tournaments.

Williams will become only the 10th woman to hold the top spot since the WTA rankings began in November 1975, replacing Jennifer Capriati in a system that includes the past 52 weeks.

Williams becomes the first black tennis player at No 1 since Arthur Ashe reached the top of the men's rankings in 1975.

"It would be foolish to forget Althea Gibson, also. She was the first," Williams said, referring to the first black woman to win Wimbledon.

Williams already has won three tournaments in 2002, at Gold Coast, Paris and Antwerp before losing in the semifinals at Dubai on Friday.

She'll take a three-week break and returns to action next month at the Nasdaq 100 in Miami, where she is the defending champion.

She said: "You don't aspire to be No 2 or No 3. Normally, you do your best to become the best. At this point, I am the best player in the world. That's exciting, and it's going to be mine at least a week."