A week ago, there was a remarkable scramble for the last three spots in the WTA Tour's season-ending championship.

	As long as Serena Williams doesn't get distracted, she should win the season-ending championships.

Anna Smashnova, Maggie Maleeva and Elena Dementieva -- playing in Linz, Austria and Luxembourg -- produced enough points to secure spots in the $3 million tournament that begins Wednesday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

And what fate awaits them in the 16-player event? Probably the same as the 14 athletes who are not named Williams -- abject defeat.

Serena and Venus Williams are the top-seeded players in the six-day event that culminates in the Monday championship final. Is there a single reason for say, Jennifer Capriati or Justine Henin, to believe the sisters won't be in this one? In a word, no. The sisters Williams have already reached the finals in three of the four 2002 Grand Slam singles events. Serena, 21, scorched Venus, 22, in all three -- in straight sets, no less.

Serena, who opens play Thursday in the single-elimination event against Smashnova, has won her past four matches against her older sister. If she is on her game -- never a guarantee before this season -- she should prevail. And if she is focused on her fledgling acting career and unveiling a second-generation cat suit? It hardly matters, for she still will finish the season at No. l.

Her 5,596 championship points in the WTA Tour ranking race are insurmountable. Even if Venus, who meets Patty Schnyder on Wednesday, were to win the event and the 485 points that go with it and Serena was inexplicably shut out, Venus (4,844 points) would fall short.

"The last couple of years haven't been her best years," Venus said of Serena after losing the U.S. Open final, "so I think she was really rejuvenated and really motivated to come out here and play well this year. She had a lot to play for."

Said Serena, "I was just tired of losing. It's not that I thought I could win all three (Slams), I just said, 'I'm tired of losing. I'm not going to lose any more.' Life was passing me by."

For all the success the sisters have had, neither has ever previously held the No.1 ranking at the end of a season. After Steffi Graf abdicated the throne in 1996 after holding the No. 1 ranking for eight of 10 years, Hingis and Lindsay Davenport held that spot for the last five years.

The championship points totals underline the dominance the Williams' enjoy on the women's circuit. Jennifer Capriati, the only non-Williams to win a Grand Slam -- in an exhausting, heat-stroked Australian Open final over Martina Hingis -- is third in the standings with 3,520 points, a staggering gap of 1,324 points behind Venus. That's more than the total for two Grand Slam titles.

The rest of the field that will be in action this week: No. 4 Justine Henin (3,133), No. 6 Kim Clijsters (2,838), No. 7 Monica Seles (2,796), No. 8 Daniela Hantuchova (2,640), No. 9. Jelena Dokic (2,403), No. 11 Anastasia Myskina (1,874), No. 12 Davenport (1,728), No. 13 Schnyder (1,701), No. 14 Chanda Rubin (1,685), No. 15 Silvia Farina Elia (1,569), No. 16 Smashnova (1,551), No. 17 Maleeva (1,539), No. 19 Dementieva (1,393).

Missing are No. 5 Amelie Mauresmo (3,068) and No. 10 Hingis (2,348). Hingis, who has suffered through a difficult season, withdrew from the tournament in mid-October. Hingis missed six tournaments, including the French Open and Wimbledon, with a left ankle injury. She came back in mid-August -- too soon, she said in retrospect. After withdrawing, Hingis underwent surgery and one torn tendon and three loose ones were repaired.

Mauresmo, who defeated Capriati in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, injured her knee practicing for the October event in Zurich and also pulled out of Los Angeles.

	Lindsay Davenport still isn't back to where she wants to be following her return from knee surgery.

The feel-good story at the Staples Center is Davenport, who lives in nearby Laguna Beach. After serious knee surgery in January, Davenport joined the WTA Tour in July and reached four finals, losing them all. At the U.S. Open she lost to Serena, but rallied late in the season to qualify for the year-end tournament that was originally scheduled for Munich, Germany.

"I still think I'm a little ways off from where I'd like to be or where I can be or where I think I was," Davenport said.

The luck of the draw, such that it is, pits Davenport against her good friend Seles in the first round. Davenport's game is in good shape; she reached the finals in Moscow and Zurich last month and made the semifinals of the Filderstadt, Germany, tournament. Seles, who has struggled with injuries, hasn't played since the U.S. Open.

Venus Williams, too, has been in remission. She hasn't played since Oct. 3 when she fell to Maleeva in the Moscow final.

Serena also will be well-rested. After the U.S. Open, she played Tokyo and Leipzig, Germany, in September and took her seventh and eighth titles of the season. She then withdrew from three tournaments citing fatigue. After five weeks off, Serena should be ready to finish the job properly.

"The difference is I'm a bit more mature and I'm more relaxed," Serena said after winning the U.S. Open. "I'm a better player -- obviously. I just have more fun with what I do. I'm not as stressed out there as I used to be."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.