24/08/2010 21:13 CEST - Wta tour
US women headed for hard times
The concern obviously is misplaced. It isn't U.S. men's tennis that is in trouble. It's the women. Serena and Venus Williams can't play forever. They may be closing in on the finish line of professional tennis. James Beck
What will 2011 hold? Or even the U.S. Open? Serena is out for sure with a foot injury, and a deep run by Venus would be a mild surprise.
Elsewhere, there's 44th-ranked Melanie Oudin and 79th-ranked Vania King. Both are young, but no one would consider them candidates to replace Serena and Venus at the top of the rankings.
That's it, the only four Americans in the top 100. And there's not another Chris Evert or Lindsay Davenport in sight.
Thus, it would appear that U.S. women's tennis is headed for tough times. There's no real answer to the problem, other than maybe that Americans aren't hungry enough. Tennis is a difficult game that takes unwavering focus to compete at the international level.
ALWAYS ANOTHER RUSSIAN
The Russians come and go, but there always seems to be another one waiting in the wings. An Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. An Alisa Anastasia. Or a Maria Kirilenko. They're all hungry.
They hardly notice it when Maria Sharapova falters because of injury or when Svetlana Kuznetsova or Nadia Petrova burn out and fall down the rankings.
Russia has reserve power. Although only one Russian was in the top 10 of last week's rankings, 17 Russians are ranked among the world's top 100 women.
And the rest of the world is turning out new faces much more often these days than in the past.
THE TRUE INTERNATIONAL SPORT
As someone said, tennis is the true international sport. Little Denmark now has the No. 2 player in the world, Caroline Wozniacki. Poland even has a top 10 player, No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska. And Na Li now represents China at No. 10.
American women have a war on their hands if they want to reclaim America's glory days in women's tennis.
From 1981-83, U.S. women occupied the top four positions in the year-end polls. Each of those years, the Americans were in the majority in the top 10 with six women.
Yes, things have changed. U.S. tennis is just lucky that Richard Williams had the vision to produce two tennis greats.
U.S. MEN HEADED UP
Forget Andy Roddick's little collapse, perhaps aided by his battle with mononucleosis. Mardy Fish just seems to have his number.
Roddick actually is playing some of his best tennis these days. He just can't seem to buy a tiebreaker. But he is back in the top 10 in the latest rankings.
Never overlook Fish or Sam Querrey. They're dangerous on hard courts. And the U.S. Open just happens to be right around the corner.
Even marathon-man John Isner was looking sharp before suffering an injury. Isner's has the big serve, but his overall game isn't quite at the level of Fish's or Querrey's.
You can look for Riddick, Fish and Querrey to cause some problems at the U.S. Open as early as the third round.
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James Beck is the long-time tennis columnist for the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier newspaper and winner of the USTA's national media excellence award. He can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com
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See James Beck's Post and Courier columns at:
http://web.charleston.net/news/columnists/james_beck/
James Beck
"The majority of the matches I win aren't pretty. But I've made a career out of that."
Andy Roddick on his 1st round victory over finnish Nieminen.
June the 28th, 1977
Eighteen-year-old John McEnroe becomes the first qualifier to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon when he defeats the Australian Phil Dent in the quartefinals. .
From "On this day in Tennis History" by Randy Walker
