U.S. Women’s Tennis: Venus or Serena?

Thanks to Don Imus, women's sports has finally consumed several days of news coverage on all the major networks and cable outlets. Unfortunately, it wasn't for the performance of the women, but for his insensitive and ill-timed comment about how the girls basketball team from my alma mater, Rutgers University, looked.

Women athletes are finally making their names known. Everyone has pretty much heard of Michelle Wie, Annika Sorenstam, Natalie Gulbis, and the entire new generation on the LPGA golf tour. A tour, quite thankfully, that includes a majority of American women at or near the top.

Now try this. Jelena Jankovic, Katarina Srebotnik, Dinara Safina, Tatiana Golovin, Vera Zvonareva, Michaella Krajicek, Venus Williams, and Anabel Medina Garrigues. Can you pick out the name that doesn't seem to fit? Yes, you got it right, Venus Williams.

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has had some very exciting and interesting tennis so far in 2007, and all due to a stable of young, fresh faces. The draw above is for the quarterfinals of the Family Circle Cup Tier I tournament in Charleston, South Carolina here in the U.S. It is clear that the former Soviet Bloc countries have begun to dominate women's tennis like never before.

What is interesting in this mix is not only that Venus Williams seems to be out of place with all the Euro-babes, but that there are two well-known tennis names in the bunch. Michaella Krajicek (yes, sister to that Krajicek) and Dinara Safina (yes, her brother has been a source of my personal pain). Krajicek has returned to full form after several injury-plagued seasons, and Safina is starting to consistently live up to her name and prowess, unlike her more famous sibling, Marat.

Rounding out the bunch are Golovin, who has performed at a high level thus far this year, and Jelena Jankovic. Jelena has been consistent since last fall and continues to be a driving force for the tour at number five in the points race. Zveronareva continues to be a workhorse in the WTA, and keeps the young girls honest.

For the first time in a while, the draw included both Venus and Serena Williams. The first clay court stop for Serena, who is number one in the 2007 point race and has both the Australian Open and the Sony Ericsson titles in her pocket, found her pulling out early due to an injury. Fortunately, sister Venus was there to keep the Williams' and U.S.' chances alive for a clay court tournament victory on home soil.

Venus and Serena seem to be the U.S.' only hope on the women's tour for consistent U.S. appearances in tournament finals. That, to me, is a shame. Venus and Serena are future Hall of Fame candidates, and Serena, especially with her racquet change, seems ready to possibly take all four majors and the single-season grand slam. Their inconsistency, and their susceptibility to injury, however, mean that a U.S. presence deep in any draw on the women's tour will be missing for a majority of tournaments. This is unlike the ATP tour, where Americans hover near the top 10 and players like Mardy Fish, James Blake, and Andy Roddick are consistently in the final four at every tournament they play in.

Serena actually said it best not that long ago. Somewhere out there is a young, hungry, female child star who is coming up the ranks and will scare even Serena herself. Serena is also right that it will not be an American. The drought in U.S. women's tennis is on and I know droughts. I'm writing this column right now from somewhere in the desert near Iraq.

On a more personal note, I received my copy of the new Tennis Week magazine just before my flight to the desert. Tennis Week has a totally new format, and included in it was a makeover of Ashley Harkleroad. Yep, the "American Anna." Ashley is sitting at No. 84 in the rankings right now. The article notes that she has returned to the tour from a two-year hiatus and that she is working her way back to the top of the game quickly. Well, I'm not so sure about that, but it is nice to see Ashley back and playing without injury. Oh, and her fashion makeover spread was pretty good, too.

Good luck with the new format, Tennis Week. Only time will tell; like in the women's game, where I'm not sure if I have enough time on this planet left to see the U.S. women dominate the game like it has in the past.