Cincy is looking better, don’t you think? Until yesterday, it was, in my mind, the least compelling of the outdoor Masters events. Indian Wells, Key Biscayne, and Madrid, being dual-gender, are bigger—nearly Grand. Monte Carlo and Rome bring the sport's ancient amateur history to life, and are held in locations somewhat more picturesque than Mason, Ohio. Montreal-Toronto has the virtue of being the first of the summer Masters, and the first important event following the season’s post-Wimbledon intermission. As Ernests Gulbis said after his Masters debut in Cincy a few years ago, he was slightly underwhelmed when he found out that the tournament was, basically, “a highway and a Marriott”—this was the big time? It also didn't help that day matches featuring big-name players were routinely surrounded by acres of empty seats. On particularly swampy afternoons, the tournament could feel like a death march, Midwestern-style. Plus, I was never sure what to think of a town that, according to a Xavier student I once sat next to on a plane, goes by the nickname "The Nasty 'Nati."
At least from a TV viewer’s perspective, though, that’s changed in 2011. This is the first year that the women and men are playing the event on the same courts, at the same time. And while there are still plenty of empty seats in the main stadium during the day, that’s not because of a lack of action on the courts. Cincy, unlike Indian Wells and Key Biscayne, has the virtue of smaller draws, which means a higher percentage of name players, and a quicker pace—where those tournaments are spread out over 10 or 11 days, this one is crammed into seven. That made for some ideal tennis viewing on Monday evening, when the Tennis Channel, which is broadcasting from Cincy 11 hours every day, could switch from Ryan Harrison to Ana Ivanovic and back, and then finish with an entertaining three-setter between Andy Roddick and Philipp Kohlshreiber. It should be a good week.
Dual-gender is the wave of the moment, of course, with Rome going that route this year, and Madrid doing the same when it moved from Hamburg in 2009. As anyone who has been to both single-gender and dual knows, it’s a big boost, for both tours—tennis is unique is this aspect, and it feels like less like a pro league than it does a community, a traveling small town or prep school, when there are men and women milling around and taking the courts together. Hey, we’ve even got Rory McIlroy, star boyfriend in the making, up in Mason, Ohio, hanging out with Caroline Wozniacki.
Will Caro be inspired enough to turn her rapidly unraveling season around? Let’s see how the draw looks for her and the other women of the Mason Marriott.
First Quarter
It may take more than McIlroy’s cherubic grin to help Wozniacki through her section. She starts with young American Christina McHale, a player who has been tough at times, but who has also suffered some blowout losses. After that, the notable names in this quarter include Petrova, Ivanovic, Andrea Petkovic, who helped start Wozniacki’s downturn by beating her in Key Biscayne, and Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova, who should be ready to show a little more of her winning form than she did in Toronto. Should, of course, is the operative word, and may always be the operative word when it comes to the laconically talented Czech.
Semifinalist: Kvitova
Second Quarter
The surprises have already begun here: Yesterday Shahar Peer beat Sabine Lisicki and Jie Zheng knocked off slumping Julia Goerges. Peer will now get the section’s top seed, Victoria Azarenka. Earlier this year I began to convince myself that Vera Zvonareva had become “reliable”—and not for her classic meltdowns. Naturally, she chose that moment to become distinctly unreliable again. After a strong spring and semifinal runs at Wimbledon and in Toronto, I’m on the verge of jinxing Azarenka with that same label (I'm going to ignore the early loss in Stanford, for convenience sake). Her lack of a killer weapon will always make her a long shot at the majors, in my opinion, but she’s begun to play within herself on a consistent basis, and that’s good enough against 99 percent of the tour.
Azarenka plays Peer first; the other three seeds in her section are Peng, Jankovic, and Schiavone, all of whom she should handle, on paper, in her current state of reliability.
And is it just me, am I just tuning in at the wrong times, or do you also completely lose track of Francesca Schiavone at this time of year?
Semifinalist: Azarenka
Third Quarter
OK, now we get to the question of the tournament: How long will Serena Williams' shiny new hard-court streak continue? Can we really count on Serena to be consistent enough to win what is for her another relatively minor event? (I’ve gotten the feeling in the past that even the French Open is sort of a minor tournament where Serena is concerned.) She said—jokingly, I hope—that she “needed the cash” after winning in Toronto; does she need even more? Or is that potential U.S. Open seeding enough to drive her to another title?
Williams, still unseeded as of now, has been dropped into an intriguing section. She plays Lucie Hradecka this afternoon, and then may get a re-match with Sam Stosur, her victim in the final on Sunday. After that, it could be French champ Li Na, and then, if things go the tournament director’s way, Maria Sharapova in the quarters. Serena got better as the week went on in Canada, but she wasn't always sharp in her early matches. You have to predict at least one scare for her in Cincy.
Also here: Svetlana Kuznetsova. She won a match. Is she finally, after such a dismal season, ready for more?
Semifinalist: Li
Fourth Quarter
Here is where the formerly reliable Zvonareva, still the No. 2 seed, has landed. She must be happy to know that Agnieszka Radwanska, her tormentor in San Diego and Toronto, isn’t around this week. Instead, she’ll face Makarova to start, possibly Wickmayer after that, and, if the seeds hold, Bartoli in the quarters. The wild card here is Bartoli. She is much improved overall, but is coming off a difficult-to-explain first-round loss in Canada.
Who is more dependable at the moment, Bartoli or Zvonareva? Or is the answer neither? We—and these are really the only words that makes sense when trying to predict a WTA tournament—shall see.
Semifinalist: Zvonareva
Semifinals: Azarenka d. Kvitova; Zvonareva d. Li
Final: Azarenka d. Zvonareva