* !Serenaby Pete Bodo*
Maybe we should start naming the quadrants of a typical 128-player draw, the kind used by Grand Slam tournaments and those bye-heavy Masters 1000 events like the one just concluded in Indian Wells and the one just beginning in Miami. If we did, I'd dub the third quarter of the WTA Miami singles draw, the one containing lines 65-96, the "desperation" quarter.
Rarely have so many beleaguered but high-value players found themselves crammed into such tight quarters.
The highest seed is Caroline Wozniacki, who started the year No. 1 and has since plummeted to No. 6; she's seeded fourth. When last seen, she was fighting back tears as she left Indian Wells after her latest disappointment, a fourth-round loss to Ana Ivanovic—another former No. 1 who had fallen on hard times.
Wozniacki has yet to win a tournament this year, and just in case she imagined it couldn't get any worse than having recently MIA but always dangerous Serena Williams (No. 10 seed) in her quarter, she may have to square off in the fourth round against a woman who's beaten her the last three times they met, the No. 14 seed, Julia Goerges.
The next highest seed after Wozniacki in that quarter is No. 6 Sam Stosur, who seems hellbent on following Wozniacki down the road to perdition. Stosur, who showed so much poise and courage when she won the U.S. Open last September that even her harshest critics thought that she had finally overcome her sometimes crippling fears and anxieties, has had just one tournament to crow about since she snatched up that Grand Slam title, her first, at age 27, in in New York. That was Doha, a month ago, where she lost the final to No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.
Since then, Stosur is a mediocre 2-2, with losses to No. 14 Jelena Jankovic (Dubai) and No. 33 Nadia Petrova (Indian Wells).
After that on the form and seeding chart in the quarter comes—gulp!—Serena.
The most natural reaction to this might be an outpouring of sympathy for Wozniacki, Stosur, et al. But Serena will be returning to a game that has been transformed in recent months by the emergence of Azarenka. Serena, who turned 30 in late September and hasn't played a WTA tournament since she lost to Ekaterina Makarova in the fourth round of the Australian Open, has demonstrated that she can withdraw from the tour fray and return to sort out the pecking order most any time she wants. But look—she can't keep doing that forever.
It would be silly to characterize one of the greatest champions of all time as "desperate" in any way in the late stages of her career. But you know what? When it comes to losing the edge, great champions often are the last to know. They have that marvelous arrogance and confidence that makes them feel that they can keep going, should they so choose, forever.
So while Serena isn't desperate—heck, she could walk away from the whole enterprise and probably never look back—her situation is critical. She needs to make a statement; another loss to the likes of a Makarova won't be good enough.
But the larger and more important point is that Azarenka's accomplishments seem to have re-energized the WTA, and the emergence of Petra Kvitova (although we haven't heard much from her lately) also suggest that there's a new order, and all the players are scrambling to find a place in it. That translates to tougher competition for everyone—including Serena.
By the way, Makarova was crushed, 2-and-0, by Wozniacki at Indian Wells—the Russian's first tournament since she toppled Serena in Melbourne (Makarova lost her next match, to Maria Sharapova).
But we're not done yet. This quarter also features one of the most enigmatic players in recent memory, No. 23 Yanina Wickmayer. The 6-foot tall Belgian is just 22, but she hasn't been past the fourth round of a major since she was a semifinalist at the U.S. Open—could it have been way back in 2009? Her ranking is an anonymous No. 33 and she hasn't beaten anyone ranked above her this year.
