Women's Tennis is a lot like Men's Golf of late: Anyone who enters has a chance to win. Without the dominance of Tiger Woods, men like Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen can win Open Championships, much like Women's Tennis. Without a healthy Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters, and with a retired Justine Henin, the Women's game is wide open.
None of the top 2 Women in the world have won a major, No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki continues to disappoint at Majors, No.2 Vera Zvonareva has been to Major finals, but melts down with the pressure, N0.3 Kim Clijsters has multiple major wins, but is injured, No.4 Maria Sharapova burst on to the scene as a 17-year-old, winning Wimbledon, but since, has been hurt with injuries and disappointments.
[caption id="attachment_27" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Petra Kvitova is the 4th different winner of a major in the past 2 years"][/caption]
The last 8 women's major winners are, 2010 Aussie Open: Serena Williams. 2010 French Open: Francesca Schiavone 2010 Wimbledon: Serena Williams. 2010 US Open: Kim Clijsters. 2011 Aussie Open: Kim Clijsters. 2011 French Open: Na Li (Li Na). 2011 Wimbledon: Petra Kvitova.
The difference in the men's game is that of the past 29 majors, 26 of them have been won by Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, the other 3, Novak Djokovic has won, including 2 this year.
As you can see, Serena Williams has 2 major victories, Kim Clijsters has 2, and the other four are others. Kim Clijsters is hurt, Serena Williams is coming off a year long injury, Maria Sharapova is coming off injury, and Caroline Wozniacki has none. Any one can win. Any one of 128 players can win a major. The Women's game is full of former world No.1 players, that can still play. the competition is closer, so it's literally anyone's game.
This is good and bad for tennis. Fans love domination (ie. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic), but they always root for the underdog (John Isner vs. Rafael Nadal @ Roland Garros) so there's a complex within a fans desire to see someone win. They want the Serena Williams' and Roger Federers' of the World to win, but they also want the James Blakes' and Bernard Tomics' of the world to succeed.
Once the US Open is over, and the tennis world's order is restored, or shook up again, we will see a trend begin in women's tennis where anyone can play for the championship, and an era in Men's tennis where 4 players continue to dominate, until Fedal (Federer-Nadal) retires.
Who will win the Women's US Open?
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