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Serena Williams spent a productive week in Doha -- seizing the season-ending World No. 1 ranking and emerging as tennis first six million dollar woman. By winning the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships -- Doha 2009, Williams has set a new single-season prize money record for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour by earning $6,545,586. Williams has eclipsed the previous record set by Justine Henin in 2007 ($5,429,586). Prize money totals include Grand Slam prize money earned. "It's incredible how much women's tennis has grown in the last few years and that the Tour has increased our prize money so significantly," said Williams. "We are very fortunate to have an opportunity to be so well rewarded for doing something we love." Though Williams won only three titles this season, compared to the 10 championships Henin claimed in setting the previous prize-money record, each of the three -- the Australian Open, Wimbledon and Doha -- were among the most lucractive paydays in tennis.

Tennis Week

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Roger Federer says that while the Andre Agassi drug revelations are hardly a tonic for the sport, "the ATP will survive it." The Swiss made his second comment on the upcoming Agassi autobiography, which details how the former player used crystal meth for a period during the late 1990s. Arguably the most damaging news was that he lied to the ATP and got away with it after a positive drugs test. "It's pretty disappointing to hear all of this," Federer said after the international drug-testing body WADA called upon the ATP to explain its actions of more than a decade ago in the controversial case. "I'm sure he had his reasons," Federer said. "But for sure it's a dark cloud over the ATP. But we will survive it."

tennistalk.com

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Her only serious recent setback occurred at this year's US Open, when she was foot-faulted on a second serve when two points from defeat in her semi-final against [Kim] Clijsters. [Serena] Williams exploded in a fit of rage, cursing at the lineswoman and being penalised a point, handing the match to her opponent. "It was out of character and I really regret it," she says. "I am a passionate person and I just lost it because it was an iffy call at a key moment. I wrote the line judge a really long letter of apology and she understood."

Times Online

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Veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro hinted he could go back on his retirement plans and take part in next year's Australian Open after his first-round defeat at the Lyon Grand Prix on Tuesday. The 36-year-old had previously said he would end his career at the end of this season. If he does make it to Melbourne in January, he would have played in a grand slam tournament in each of four consecutive decades. "Since a Canadian reporter told me I would be the first to achieve such a feat, I keep on saying to myself that it would be nice, it would be an uncommon record," Santoro, who made his Grand Slam debut in Roland Garros in 1989, told reporters after his first-round defeat by Spaniard Albert Montanes in Lyon. "But if I want to be able to play five-set games in Melbourne, I must not go skiing in December. I won't make that decision thoughtlessly. Australian Open or not, the Paris-Bercy tournament will put the real end to my career," he added about next month's Masters tournament in the French capital.

Reuters

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Russia's Dinara Safina will replace Serena Williams as the No. 1 tennis player on the women's tour after the American held the top spot for two weeks. Safina, who has never won a major, will overtake Williams, the reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open champion, when the rankings are published Oct. 26, the WTA Tour said in an e-mailed statement today. The women are five points apart. Safina moves back to No. 1 because the points earned at the 2008 year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha come off, the WTA said. During the 2009 season, Safina has earned more ranking points than any other player on the tour by winning titles in Rome, Madrid and Portoroz and reaching six finals in total, the tour said.

Bloomberg

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