V. Williams takes over No. 3 world ranking

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., May 11 (UPI) -- Venus Williams jumped to No. 3 in the latest WTA tennis rankings, marking her highest ranking since 2002.

Williams went from fifth to third in the rankings released Monday by the WTA. She is 19-4 this year with a pair of tournament titles. She advanced to the semifinals of last week's tournament in Rome.

Williams finished the 2002 season with a No. 2 world ranking but slipped to 48th by the end of 2006, mostly due to injuries keeping her off the court. But she quickly moved up the ranking chart and was No. 8 in 2007 and sixth after last year.

Dinara Safina, who beat Williams in the Rome semifinals and has been in the last two WTA finals, retained her No. 1 spot while Serena Williams is No. 2.

Jelena Jankovic stayed No. 4 but Elena Dementieva, who had been third, slipped to No. 5. Vera Zvonareva is sixth.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, who played Safina in those last two tournament title matches, improved one spot to seventh, knocking Ana Ivanovic to eighth. Victoria Azarenka and Nadia Petrova are at ninth and 10th, respectively.