The age-old question in tennis is whether you would rather be world number one or a Grand Slam champion.
Coco Gauff has admitted that majors are a bigger goal for her, something that she has already achieved.
The American now has two major titles to her name, with Gauff winning her latest at Roland Garros, but she is still yet to top the WTA rankings.
However, there is a now-retired WTA player who was world number one for half a year, but could never lift a major title.
Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty ImagesDinara Safina: The former world number one who never won a Grand Slam
That player is Dinara Safina, the former WTA player who first became world number one in April 2009.
This was already a historic feat, as Safina and her brother, Marat Safin, became the first sibling duo to top the ATP and WTA singles rankings.
However, the difference between their respective reigns was that Safin had already won a Grand Slam singles title before he became world number one.
Safina had not won a major title at this point, but had already reached two Grand Slam finals where she was comfortably beaten on both occasions.
The most recent of those came at the 2009 Australian Open, where Safina was dismissed by Serena Williams.
During her first reign as world number one, that lasted 25 weeks, Safina won two WTA 1000 titles in Madrid and Rome, and reached her third major final at Roland Garros.
Once again Safina was beaten in straight sets, this time losing out to her Russian compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Grand Slam Final ResultRoland Garros 2008Ana Ivanovic beat Safina, 6-3 6-4Australian Open 2009Serena Williams beat Safina, 6-0 6-3Roland Garros 2009Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Safina, 6-4 6-2
Safina would lose her world number one ranking in October 2009 after her third round exit at the US Open, before she returned to the top spot for just one week later that month.
It would mostly be a decline for Safina from that point, who only managed one fourth round appearance at a Grand Slam after 2009.
Safina would play her last ever match in 2011, retiring as the player who had spent the most weeks as world number one without winning a Grand Slam singles title.
When reflecting on her time as world number one years later, Safina told The Guardian that being world number one was not what she imagined it to be.
“I always had a dream to be famous, No.1 and all this, but then suddenly I felt so much pressure being there,” said Safina. “I didn’t expect that I would have this pressure. I thought it was going to be fun, you know?
“You become famous, you become No 1. And everybody is happy. It’s actually the opposite! Everybody wants to beat you.”
Safina did win one Grand Slam singles title in doubles with Natalie Dechy at the 2007 US Open, but could not recreate this on the singles court.
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Since retiring from tennis, Safina has coached top 20 WTA player Diana Shnaider for a brief period earlier this year.
How many world number one players have never won a Grand Slam?
Although she has spent more weeks as world number one than any other player without a major title, Safina is not alone in this statistic.
There are two other WTA players who hold this unwanted record, one of those being Jelena Jankovic, who was in the same era as Safina and has also now retired.
The other player on this list is still an active competitor in Karolina Pliskova, but she is currently ranked outside the top 400 after undergoing ankle surgery and has not competed since the US Open last year.
Pliskova has played two Grand Slam finals in her career, with the most recent coming against the now-retired Ash Barty at Wimbledon in 2021.
Former world number oneHow many weeks they spent as world number oneBest Grand Slam ResultDinara Safina 26Final (Roland Garros 2008 & 2009, Australian Open 2009)Jelena Jankovic 18Final (US Open 2008)Karolina Pliskova8Final (US Open 2016 & Wimbledon 2021)Marcelo Rios6Final (Australian Open 1998)
Marcelo Rios is the only ATP player who has become world number one and never won a major title, with his reign at the top of the rankings lasting just six weeks across two spells.
The best Grand Slam result of the Chilean’s career came in 1998, when Rios reached the Australian Open final before losing to Petr Korda, who is the dad of Sebastian Korda.