Will the real No. 1 please stand up . . .

By Mike Penner

May 5, 2009 12 AM PT

Despite evidence to the contrary, new No. 1 Dinara Safina is not the best women’s player in the world, according to the new No. 2.

“We all know who the real No. 1 is,” Serena Williams told a news conference at the Italian Open at Rome on Monday. “Quite frankly, I’m the best in the world.”

Asked which opponent she feared the most, Williams stuck to the same theme: “Probably myself. I always beat myself.” Williams can point to her record of 10 Grand Slam titles, 10 more than Safina has won.

But Safina wasn’t apologizing for her place atop the rankings. She said Williams is “older than me, so she has more experience. So let’s see when I’m her age how many titles I have and then we can say.

“It’s not luck. Nobody gave it to me. I played two Grand Slam finals and last year I won four titles. This didn’t come out of [the] sky.”

Trivia time

When Gary Sheffield hit the 500th home run of his big league career, what other select company did he join?

Gun control

According to the Toronto Star, there is a “growing clamor” in Canada to get rid of starter’s pistols at high school track meets. The pistols are not dangerous, but detractors say they present the wrong image.

“We shouldn’t have a person with a gun, even though it fires blanks, near schoolchildren,” Roman Olszewski of Athletics Ontario told the Star.

Quipped Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press: “Now they need something to throw besides the javelin.”

Derby musings

David Letterman, on the Kentucky Derby: “It is the most exciting two minutes in sports. That and an Alex Rodriguez blood test. Of course, the winner of the race at the end of the racing season usually gets put out to stud. It’s like being elected governor of New York or California, either one.”

Trivia answer

Sheffield joined Ty Cobb and Rusty Staub as the only players to homer before the age of 20 and after reaching the age of 40.

And finally

From Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Milton Bradley, who woulda thought he’d already be suspended for bad behavior, and injured?”

mike.penner@latimes.com