by Stewart Fisher , Sunday Herald

No fewer than nine different players have held the position.

Three of them - Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Lindsay Davenport - have since retired from the sport. Clijsters has even managed to squeeze in a comeback.

In addition to the reigning champion, no fewer than four of these No 1s were in action yesterday, including current encumbent Dinara Safina. It would have been five had Maria Sharapova not been put out by Gisela Dulko a round earlier. It seemed unlikely in the extreme that all would survive.

Many had pinpointed Ana Ivanovic, the Serbian who had entered last year's competition at No 1, only to tumble out at the third round stage, as a potential victim. The 21year-old - no better than No 13 seed following a persistent thumb injury and a run of poor Grand Slam results - had only scraped through the first round against Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic, and faced improving Australian Samantha Stosur on Court No 2. But a bravura performance saw her win 7-5, 6-2.

Next up for Ivanovic is Venus.

The pair have met only once before at Wimbledon, Williams winning the 2007 semi-final in straight sets, but Ivanovic said last night she felt she was on top of the world. fiI think I am a better player now than when I was World No 1 last year, " she said. fiI feel much more experienced and much more mature in some way. I went through a lot over the past year, being No 1, and having some disappointing losses and some tough times. I think that made me stronger."

But the pouting, posturing and Serbian swear words were all out on Court No 3, where Jelena Jankovic - World No 1 as recently as the turn of the year - was crashing to Melanie Oudin. Be it injury, court placement, or the alignment of the planets, some kind of melodramatic subtext is rarely far away from a Jankovic defeat. So it proved yesterday when she blamed her monthly menstruation cycle, or fiwomen problems" for her departure.

fiAfter the first set I felt really dizzy, and I thought I was going to end up in the hospital, " Jankovic said. fiI started to shake. I was losing my consciousness. I felt really tired and exhausted as well as some woman problems. It's not easy being a woman."

In truth, however, the main reason for her defeat was the inspiration of Oudin, a 17-yearold from the deep south of the USA who was actually beaten by Laura Robson in last year's girls event. She certainly came of age yesterday, overcoming the loss of a first-set tie break 10-8, to win by a surprisingly comfortable 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 margin.

Next up in the roll of honour was Amelie Mauresmo. The Frenchwoman spent 34 weeks at the top of the charts in 2006, and has the rare distinction of being a No 1 who actually managed to win at the All England club during her spell at the top. Mauresmo has been back amongst the trophies in 2009, and had enough in the locker to win 7-5, 6-3, against Flavia Pennetta of Italy.

Where Venus is concerned, no-one had the temerity to predict anything other than a straightforward victory, regardless of the fact that her opponent Carla Suarez Navarro, a plucky wee baseliner from Spain, has climbed as high as 34th in the world and even won their only previous meeting, knocking her out of the Australian Open in January.

But this was Wimbledon we were talking about, where Venus has won each of her last 29 sets. She capitalised on her second break point to break the Suarez-Navarro serve in the very first game, then repeated the trick in the Spaniard's next two service games. The first set was complete in just 33 minutes, with every successful Williams first serve leading to a point.

It wasn't until the ninth game that Suarez-Navarro managed to make it on to the score sheet.

Venus then briefly fell to earth, dropping her serve and failing to capitalise on a number of break points. One match point was saved before the Spaniard could hold on no longer.

One more booming Williams forehand on match point and Suarez-Navarro was history.

All that left was Safina, the current No 1 who has perhaps gives her the best chance of living with the Williams sisters.

She proved too much for Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, the conqueror of Elena Baltacha, winning 7-5, 6-1.

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