Stability in Men's Tennis, Wide Open Women's Tennis
As we round the turn heading towards the 2010 U.S.Open, the top four men, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray reached the semis of the first post-Wimbledon ATP Masters tournament in Canada, the Rogers Cup. Meanwhile, at the
WTA Tour’s top tier Western and Southern Financial tournament in Cincinnati, there are three former Grand Slam champions in the semis, i.e. Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic (the fourth is nineteen year old Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who is a former ITF World Junior Champion), but their current rankings are nowhere near the top four, except for Clijsters who is currently ranked 7th (Sharapova is 15th, Ivanovic is 62nd and Pavlyuchenkova is 25th).
With Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Justine Henin sidelined with injuries, there are major opportunities for the other women to both win titles, as well as gain valuable rankings points prior to the U.S. Open to help themselves obtain a higher seeding. However, the inconsistency and upsets on the women's Tour have been rampant again this summer. These results also continue the pattern from the past couple years where the top men have consistently reached the later rounds of tournaments while there has been a lot of turmoil at the top of the women’s game. Recently, with Nadal taking over the Number One spot and Federer falling to third, there has been some movement in the men’s rankings, but still the top of the men’s game feels much more stable than trying to predict the possible winner of the women’s title at the upcoming U.S. Open!
With Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Justine Henin sidelined with injuries, there are major opportunities for the other women to both win titles, as well as gain valuable rankings points prior to the U.S. Open to help themselves obtain a higher seeding. However, the inconsistency and upsets on the women's Tour have been rampant again this summer. These results also continue the pattern from the past couple years where the top men have consistently reached the later rounds of tournaments while there has been a lot of turmoil at the top of the women’s game. Recently, with Nadal taking over the Number One spot and Federer falling to third, there has been some movement in the men’s rankings, but still the top of the men’s game feels much more stable than trying to predict the possible winner of the women’s title at the upcoming U.S. Open!
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