As the Australian Open started, a cat fight erupted with the bone of contention who rightfully should hold the women's world No 1 ranking. When it draws to a close, the question will be finally decided.The vagaries of the ranking system sometimes throws up scenarios that are difficult to comprehend but that is not the case this time.

Serena Williams v Dinara Safina is not just a heavyweight contest between a tried and tested champion and a bright young pretender. It will also be a case of winner-takes-all with top spot in the world on offer as well as the title.

Any sort of verbal sniping should be silenced immediately. However, in fairness of Safina, she was not involved in the initial spat with the younger Williams sister and perhaps she had seen enough of big brother Marat’s black eyes, which he collected.

In a Moscow altercation during the New Year festivities, to realise the only sort of confrontation she should involve herself in would be with a racket in her hand.

Jelena Jankovic will now definitely be deposed and those who denigrate her talents can feel themselves slightly justified. This was her great opportunity to finally break her ominous grand slam duck but she was unceremoniously unravelled by Marion Bartoli.

It is all well and good, and it has to be said extremely lucrative, winning a succession of lower ranked tournaments but it is the majors that really count when it comes to gathering respect from opponents. There are times when Serena Williams is infuriating. For evidence, how about the sight of her dancing at a players party.

At last November’s Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Doha just after making a pained withdrawal from the tournament citing injury? But she is a proven champion, which effectively gave credence to her verbal attack on Jankovic before action began, and success against Safina in the final will take her collection of major singles titles to ten.

There is little debate that Safina is currently the strongest amongst the gaggle of Russians that populate the world’s top ten and after suffering from an understandable case of nerves when she played her first grand slam final at last year’s French Open, she should be more calm and confident this time.

Without doubt she is strong, tall and more than capable of standing toe-to-toe with Williams when power comes into play. She also appears to be mentally stronger than compatriots such as Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, who she overcame 6-3, 7-6 in one semi-final, and Elena Dementieva, who lost 6-3, 6-4 to Williams in the other.

But there is still a propensity for unforced errors in her game and somebody as battle-hardened as Williams will lick her lips in anticipation. Safina was still able to take advantage of Zvonareva’s inexperience at this level but her next opponent will be a totally different matter.

The most basic study of Safina’s progression through the draw does not make overly impressive reading. She has been extended to three sets on three occasions and could certainly count herself fortunate to have survived against the emergent Frenchwoman Alize Cornet in the fourth round. Similarly a less physically spent Jelena Dokic would potentially have posed too many problems in the quarter-final.

Serena, it must be said, was saved by the Heat Rule Policy in her quarter-final although it remains to be seen whether Kuznetsova would not have cracked under the mental pressure of having to finish off a floundering opponent. There was no debate the overhead sun and extreme heat was causing Williams to wilt. But that is history now. What remains in the immediate future is a final between arguably the two hardest hitters in the women’s game.

There are chinks in the armour of both contestants, weaknesses that can be exploited. But one has been there before and won the Australian Open on a bi-yearly basis for most of this decade. The other is still wondering whether she can emulate her big brother Marat and take a grand slam title.It won’t be an alluring final to watch but it will be a battle. And when the eventual champion holds the trophy on high she will also be safe in the knowledge that beyond dispute she is the No 1 player in the world.