MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. tennis star Serena Williams will finish 2009 as the world's number one after Russia's Dinara Safina withdrew from the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha on Wednesday.
Current number one Safina pulled out with a back injury after two games of her opening match in the capital of Qatar against Serb Jelena Jankovic.
Williams will take the number one spot from the 23-year-old Russian even if she loses the rest of her matches this year after beating Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova on Tuesday.
"It's really unfortunate. Dinara said she had hurt her lower back," Jankovic commented after the 13-minute match.
Safina said she would be out for at least six weeks and there was a chance she could miss the Australian Open.
