DOHA, Qatar - The year-end singles No.1 ranking may have been decided but the top doubles spot is still up for grabs this weekend at the Sony Ericsson Championships. As well as trying to fend off the ranking threat posed by Serena and Venus Williams, Zimbabwean-American duo Cara Black and Liezel Huber are gunning for a third straight Tour Championships title.
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Having won five titles this season to take their joint haul to 27, Black and Huber are, in fact, the only team not making their championships debut as a team. Second to secure qualification this year, Serena and Venus qualified in 1998 but did not play as Venus was suffering tendonitis of the left knee.
The third team to make the cut, Spaniards Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez, are both first-timers. They won more titles this season than any other team - six - including a maiden Premier-level win at Toronto. But they were less successful at Grand Slams, never advancing past the quarterfinals, so their semifinal against the Williams sisters is arguably the biggest occasion of their careers. The teams haven't met before on Tour.
And while Aussie duo Samantha Stosur are Rennae Stubbs are both former doubles No.1s and boast great histories at this event - Stosur won twice with Lisa Raymond, while Stubbs was champion in 2001 (also with Raymond) and is making her 14th appearance - they only began playing together this year. They haven't won a title yet, but were runners-up three times, and beat Black and Huber - who they'll meet in the semis on Saturday - twice in four meetings.
Co-world No.1s without interruption since November 2007, if Black and Huber win that match, they will secure the year-end No.1 ranking - even if they ultimately lose to the Williams sisters in the final. If they manage the hat-trick of titles they will be in rare company: the last pair to score at least three in a row were 10-time winners Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver (1986-89), while the last player to achieve the feat was Lindsay Davenport, who triumphed with three different partners from 1996-98.
But if they lose to Stosur and Stubbs and Serena and Venus win the title, the sisters will overtake them. That would make Serena the first player to end the year as No.1 in both singles and doubles since Martina Navratilova in 1986.
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