TNT Sports
Serena sends out warning
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Published 04/04/2004 at 22:40 GMT+1
Venus Williams' form may be continuing it’s nose dive, but for her younger sister Serena, the chances of her return to winning ways at the major championships, means food for thought for those players that ducked out of the Miami tournament in need of res
Eurosport
Image credit: TNT Sports
Some may smirk at the relative ease with which Serena dismantled Elena Dementieva's 60mph serve en route to a third Miami title on Saturday, but who was her opposition?
With only three of the world's top ten, playing the self-proclaimed "fifth Grand Slam", the 22-year-old make light work of the also-rans of the women's tour.
After an eight month absence, the American would have stood no chance of winning the title, let alone advancing past her first round opponent, if she was a member of the men's tour.
Without Justine Henin-Hardenne, Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo and Lindsay Davenport - the worlds top four players - the nature of upsets in the men's tournament meant that the women's draw was left in the shade once again.
Henin, the world number one [for now], was quick to thank the stars of the men's game for attending the Indian Wells Masters a fortnight ago. And rightly so.
This week's Miami Masters became unrecognisable as a hard court tournament the minute box office stars such as Roger Federer and Andre Agassi departed.
The fact that the majority of the men's fourth round draw resembled a who's who of clay court specialists, did little to turn spectators away before they even hit the turnstyles.
So surely it is time for the Women's Tennis Association, the governing body of women's tennis, to implement measures that guarantee a high percentage of top-ranked played for dual-tournaments such as Indian Wells and Miami?
After all these are showcase tour events, broadcast world-wide, offering its participants big prizes and valuable ranking points to help their cause when it comes to seed allocation at the Grand Slam championships.
Unfortunately, the sad truth is, apart from the welcome return of Serena, Eleni Daniilidou - conqueror of Jennifer Capriati - and Dementieva for ousting Venus in the quarterfinals, are players that warrant applause from their Miami experience.
While Svetlana Kuznetsova is a top five player in the making and continues to build her fans base as a future Grand Slam contender from Russia, the past four weeks would have been very different if fans had not been subjected to a inferior women's tour.
Ironically, the next tournament in Amelia Island boasts a stronger field than the Miami draw. It's just a pity that there won't be as big a audience and media presence.
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