Serena clinches year-end world No.1 ranking

American women's tennis star Serena Williams will finish a year on top of the singles rankings for the third time as she clinched the year-end World No.1 ranking.

"Williams has had an absolutely phenomenal season so far, putting together a 67-4 record and capturing nine WTA titles, including two Grand Slams (the French Open and US Open), six Premier-level titles (Brisbane, Miami, Charleston, Madrid, Rome and Toronto) and one International-level title (Bastad - her first International-level title)," WTA said on its website Friday.

The 32-year-old Williams, who celebrated her birthday Thursday, returned to No.1 rank Feb 18 and became the oldest player ever to top the WTA rankings, reports Xinhua.

She has collected $9,077,322 in prize money this season so far, passing the previous record of $7,923,920 that Victoria Azarenka set last year.

Williams, who finished world No.1 in 2002 and 2009, is the seventh player since the inception of WTA rankings in 1975 to finish three or more seasons at No.1 following Steffi Graf (eight times), Martina Navratilova (seven times), Chris Evert (five times), Lindsay Davenport (four times), Justine Henin (three times) and Martina Hingis (three times).