Clijsters gives others hope with rare defeat of Williams

LOS ANGELES -- By beating Serena Williams to win the WTA Championships, Kim Clijsters slightly loosened the stranglehold Serena and older sister Venus have on women's tennis.

Clijsters lost her five previous matches against Serena until winning 7-5, 6-3 late Monday night in the season-ending $3 million tournament.

The 19-year-old Belgian became the first player since Martina Hingis in the 2001 Australian Open to beat the Williams sisters in the same tournament and only the fourth ever. Clijsters led 5-0 in the first set when Venus quit their semifinal because of a leg injury.

"It's nice for the other players to see that they are beatable and I think that will motivate some other players," said Clijsters, who received $765,000 for the victory.

Serena lost for just the fifth time this year, marking the end of her 18-match winning streak.

She and Venus finished the year at Nos. 1 and 2 in the final WTA Tour rankings released Tuesday. Venus was runner-up to Serena in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments.

Jennifer Capriati is No. 3, while Clijsters jumped two spots to fourth and fellow Belgian Justine Henin is fifth.

The second five are Amelie Mauresmo, Monica Seles, Daniela Hantuchova, Jelena Dokic and Hingis. Lindsay Davenport finished 12th after missing six months because of knee surgery.

Clijsters doesn't think the Williams sisters have an iron grip on being the best.

"If I play well, I think I belong there, but there are a lot of other players who belong there as well," she said. "You have Lindsay and Monica who played really well against Venus. If I'm injury-free, I think I'm capable of staying in the top five."

Clijsters also beat Venus on clay in May to win a tournament in Hamburg, Germany.

"She has good speed, good power and good consistency," Venus said. "She's really improved her attitude on the court."

Serena finished with a 56-5 record and won French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles despite playing just 13 tournaments, second fewest among the top 10 players. Her prize money of $3,657,826 was a season record.

"Last year, when I didn't play the Australian Open, I got super motivated," she said. "I told myself I was going to win the French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open. Sometimes for me, I need to take a step back."

Williams said her main goal next year is to go undefeated.

"Just pick very few tournaments and win all the ones I play," she said.

After two decades in New York and last year in Germany, the WTA Championships moved to Staples Center and struggled to attract fans. Attendance for Monday night's final was announced as 10,232 in the 20,000-seat arena. The five-day total was 56,862.

"They're going to have to do a lot more promotions. A lot of my friends had no idea why I was in town," Seles said. "The first year is always hard and if they can tough it out, they can build it up to what it was in New York at the Garden."

Attendance at the weekday afternoon sessions was particularly poor, with only a few thousand on hand.

"We think what happened on Wednesday and Thursday, which has happened numerous years in the past, is unacceptable, and the format is as much to blame as anything else," said Kevin Wulff, the tour's chief executive officer.

Wulff said it's possible the 16-player field could be reduced to eight or 12 and changed to a round-robin instead of single-elimination format. He declined to specify how the match schedule might change.

Grand Slam winner Sanchez-Vicario retires

BARCELONA, Spain -- After winning four Grand Slam titles and once holding the No. 1 ranking, a sobbing Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario retired from tennis Tuesday.

The 30-year-old Spaniard ended her 17-year career at a news conference that was attended by her family, her boyfriend and her two dogs.

"The time has come for me to think about myself," she said. "It hasn't been an easy decision but I believe the moment has arrived for me to dedicate my time to my personal life."

Sanchez-Vicario turned pro in 1985 and won 29 singles titles. Among her victories were French Open championships in 1989, 1994 and 1998 and a U.S. Open crown in 1994, when she beat Steffi Graf in the final. She reached the finals at Wimbledon each of the next two years, losing both times to Graf.