Tennis Has No Need For a Leading Lady

A lot is made of the fact that women's tennis lacks big names that consistently come to the fore. Is this, however, a bad thing? For attracting new fans, or even keeping the interest of casual ones, it is a drawback. There isn't a Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, with the possible exception of Maria Sharapova, though that's got more to do with her "brand" than performances over the last couple of years.

Last week, fellow writer Mert Ertunga wrote an article stating that he couldn't see anything other than the top four men's tennis players reaching the semifinals. At the time of writing this, they are all on course to do so. The problem is that it is too predictable. Yes, the calibre of tennis is usually incredibly high when those four meet and they are sometimes pushed in the earlier rounds, but ultimately you expect them to come through.

Now on the women's side, you don't have that same confidence. At the start of Wimbledon, the four favorites at the bookmakers were Sharapova, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Caroline Wozniacki. Only one of whom remains at the quarterfinal stage. Has that detracted from the tournament? No, it has enhanced it.

On the men's side there are, realistically, four challengers for the title, whilst on the women's side, there are countless contenders. Yet all you hear from pundits is how women's tennis is going through a bad period. The simple fact is that you don't need superstars for the product to be interesting.

On the second Monday alone, the women's side produced some fascinating storylines. Serena Williams was beaten by Marion Bartoli in an encounter that often produced good tennis, but even when the standard of play dropped, it was still enthralling viewing. The reason why it was so gripping is that you had the sense that Bartoli could do something special. When Mikhail Youzhny went a set up against Roger Federer, you never had that sense. Deep down, you knew Federer would come back. Part of this feeling stems from the fact that women only play three sets, therefore an upset it more likely.

Elsewhere, there was another upset as Venus Williams was ousted by a fine performance by Tsetvana Pironkova and the world No. 1, Wozniacki, once again failed in her quest to win her first major title. She lost to Dominika Cibulkova. Some of the names in the quarterfinals may not be too familiar to some people, especially world No. 80, Tamira Paszek. Paszek was involved in one of the matches of the tournament against Francesca Schiavone in third round. Paszek won the final set 11-9 in match that lasted nearly four hours.

Though some of them may not be familiar to some people that doesn't mean that they won't be soon. The men who are successful tend to be in their mid-to-late-20s, whereas the women who are leading the way are younger. They are aged 20-24-years-old. There are some exceptions, like Li Na, Francesca Schiavone, and Marion Bartoli, who have all taken a little longer to mature as players.

The point is that instead of bemoaning unpredictability it is time to embrace it because we don't know how long it will last. Future stars like Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka could go on to dominate the game and if they do, some people will complain about the same people always winning.