Women’s tennis has a new #1: Victoria Azarenka!

Talk about huge wins, Victoria Azarenka not only won the Australian Open earlier today over Maria Sharapova, she also became the number one ranked player in the world.

Will she stay at number one awhile and win more slams or will she follow in the footsteps of recent single slam winners Li Na, Samantha Stosur, Petra Kivitova, Francesca Schiavone who have failed to turn their victories into tour domination?

Kim Clijsters has won three slams since returning to the tour in summer of 2009 but she has only spent one week as number one while Serena Williams, winner of 13 slam titles, has not been playing enough tour events in recent years to remain at number one.

The game could use a new superstar and Azarenka could very well be it.

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, Caroline Wozniacki has got to be somewhat relieved to no longer be the number one after reigning for one year and four months.

During that time, Wozniacki failed to win – or even make it to the finals – of a single grand slam tournament.

This basically has made the top ranking a big joke.

Before Wozniacki’s slamless reign, only Jelena Jankovic (18 weeks) and Dinera Safina (26 weeks) had been the number one player without ever winning a grand slam before, during or after their time at the top.

That had never happened during the first 33 years of official ranking when all-time greats such as Chris Evert (260 weeks, 18 slams), Martina Navratilova (332 weeks, 18 slams), Steffi Graf (377 weeks, 22 slams), and Monica Seles enjoyed stellar runs at the top and won slams left and right. (Seles surely would have been number one longer than 178 weeks and won more than 9 slams had she not been stabbed by a madman during the peak of her career).

The men’s game has benefited from having its true superstars at the very top. Either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal was number one from early 2004 through July of 2011 when Novak Djokovic became the top player while winning three of the year’s four slams.

Tomorrow, Djokovic and Nadal face off in a slam final for the third straight time when they play for the Australian Open title.

If Nadal wins, it will be his 11th slam title overall tying him with Bjorn Borg on the all-time list. (Federer holds the record with 16 slam wins). If Djokovic prevails, it will be his third Australian Open title and fifth slam overall.