The veteran older sister of world number one Serena Williams won the WTA tournament in Wuhan last week, as Spain's Garbine Muguruza retired during the final due to exhaustion, although she was already a set and three games down at that point.
There was some solace for the Spaniard, though, as the Wimbledon finalist climbed three places to a career high ranking of fifth.
Serbia's Ana Ivanovic was the big loser as the former French Open champion fell six places to 15th.