The U.S. Open Series is already halfway through for the women, and this much is clear—the WTA’s top players couldn't care less. Yep, just like last year, the U.S. Open Series is quickly devolving into a bit of a joke, proof yet again that the WTA is powerless when it comes to delivering its talent for the summer hard court season and the USTA’s principle marketing vehicle leading into the U.S. Open.
Whether it was injuries or indifference, most of the top players—Ana Ivanovic, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams, and Elena Dementieva—decided to skip the first two Series events, first in Stanford, Calif. and then in Los Angeles. Serena Williams played Stanford, where she retired with a knee injury. World No. 2, Jelena Jankovic, bypassed Stanford but entered Los Angeles, where she was upset in the semifinals. The No. 6 player in the world, Anna Chakvetadze, took the unusual step of competing in both events, though despite her ranking she crashed and burned in the early rounds in each tournament.
As of July 29, the Top 5 point leaders in the US Open Series standings were Dinara Safina (1), Aleksandra Wozniak (2), Marion Bartoli (3), Flavia Pennetta (4), and Jelena Jankovic (5).
Somewhere, Arlen Kantarian, the CEO for professional tennis for the USTA and the architect of the U.S. Open Series, must be on the phone with Yogi Berra. “Yo, Yogi, it’s déjà vu all over again, my man.”
Last summer, the beginning of each week was often greeted with the announcement that top WTA players were pulling out of U.S. Open warm-up events. At the Rogers Cup, in Toronto, for example, the Williams sisters, Martina Hingis, Amelie Mauresmo, and Maria Sharapova all withdrew due to ailments like thumb, hip, knee, and leg injuries.
The Rogers Cup had rebounded nicely this week, with most of the top players except Serena and Venus Williams in the draw. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Sharapova pulled out after her first match, and there’s only one more U.S. Open Series event on the schedule for the women, in New Haven, the week before the U.S. Open. How many stars, many of whom will be playing the Olympics in Beijing before New Haven, will actually show up in the Nutmeg state rather than rest up for the Open? As of this week, the highest ranked player listed on the Pilot Pen website is No. 14, Agnes Szavay.
Clearly, women’s tennis is taking a summer vacation. And then people wonder how Jelena Jankovic, a wonderfully talented player, can mathematically become No. 1 this week even though she’s never reached a Grand Slam final.
Meanwhile, most of the men compete in the key U.S. Open Series events (at least the ones designated as Masters Series). What’s up with the women? Why can’t they stay healthy? Was does their interest seem to wane?
Right now, the U.S. Open Series doesn’t appear to be a viable vehicle to showcase the women. Frankly, the WTA Tour seems to exist only at the Grand Slams; for the remainder of the season it’s hit-and-mostly-miss, a bunch of tournaments with one, maybe two top players. When is the last time you can remember a non-Grand Slam event when all Top 10 women competed? Sometimes, I get the feeling that the top players just don’t like facing each other and, as you often see in junior tennis, go out of their way to avoid each other.
Defenders of the tour will say that the competition has never been tougher, the draws never deeper. It’s the old parity argument, folks, and parity, at least in my book, is usually a euphemism for mediocrity.
The WTA has a long-term plan, dubbed the Road Map, which goes into effect in 2010, to address its many problems. The plan is designed to fight player injury and fatigue, and reduce tournament commitments. That alone seems kind of silly—the players aren’t competing much anyway, so what’s to reduce? But we’ll see if the Road Map reinvigorates the WTA and makes the players more inclined to support the tour in general and summer tennis in the U.S. in particular.
In the meantime, it might be time to rethink the branding of the U.S. Open Series. The USTA calls it the “Greatest Road Trip in Sports.” But for women’s tennis, it might as well be labeled “The Greatest Train Wreck in Sports.”
James Martin is the editor-in-chief of TENNIS magazine.