Serena stays atop rankings

Berlin - American Serena Williams ended her best career year atop the women's tennis rankings issued on Monday by the WTA as the season is all but wrapped up.

Williams, 32, has amassed 13 260 points to command the standings ahead of Belarussian Victoria Azarenka (8 046) and Li Na of China (6 045), who climbed into a career-high third for reaching the WTA Championships final she lost against Williams on Sunday.

Williams won 11 tournaments - including the French Open, US Open and the wrap-up in Istanbul - in her best season and was assured of a fourth prestigious year-ending number one ranking for weeks.

She also became the first women's place to earn more than 12 million dollars in prize money.

"It was an awesome year of tennis. To end with the Billie Jean King trophy after ... everything we have celebrated this year, I don't know if it's written, but it's just really exciting," Williams said.

Li rose from fifth to third at the expense of Russian Maria Sharapova and Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in what was the only change in the top 10.

WTA top 10 as of October 28 (previous ranking in parenthesis):

1. (1) Serena Williams, United States, 13 260 points

2. (2) Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 8 046

3. (5) Li Na, China, 6 045

4. (3) Maria Sharapova, Russia, 5 891

5. (4) Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland, 5 875

6. (6) Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic, 4 775

7. (7) Sara Errani, Italy, 4 435

8. (8) Jelena Jankovic, Serbia, 4 170

9. (9) Angelique Kerber, Germany, 3 965

10. (10) Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark, 3 520