With a 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2 victory over Vera Zvonareva at the Sony Ericsson WTA Championships, seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams ended the chaotic women’s season with a roar.
Williams, who has made little noise off grass courts the past five years, collected her first Tier I hard-court title since ‘01, a remarkable stat given that she’s a two-time U.S. Open champion (‘00-’01). But the tour is quite deep at the top, highlighted by the fact that a non-Slam winner — Jelena Jankovic — finished the year at No. 1, reaching only one major final.
Perhaps for the first time ever, there really is no clear-cut Player of the Year.
JJ may not have ripped it up at the majors this year, but she was in great form much of this fall and must be given credit for strapping on her tennis shoes when other top players have taken a substantial amount of time off. Beating Elena Dementieva in Moscow is no small feat, nor is taking out five-time Wimbledon champion Venus at the same locale. But the 23-year-old Serb is by no means a legend, and may not even be a legend in the making. Her ascent to No. 1 in early August without reaching a Slam final was a sorry Open-era record, but that would have been quickly forgotten had she managed to claw her way to a three-set victory over Serena Williams at the U.S. Open. Unfortunately, she backed off late in the second set of her loss. Then, when push came to shove at the WTA Championships, Venus knocked Jankovic out in a three-set semi.
That Jankovic ended the year in the top spot without having won a Slam says something more profound: Too many great women’s champions are retiring early and leaving some of the tour’s biggest honors to those who should have needed more time to claim them.
Had Belgian and seven-time Grand Slam champ Justine Henin not unexpectedly retired in May at the relatively young age of 26, this topic might not be ripe for discussion. But with Henin joining other former Slam champs under the age of 29 — Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters and Anastasia Myskina — into early retirement, it’s worth noting. The Belgian, who had a substantial lead in the rankings to an incredible ‘07, asked the tour to remove her from the rankings. And that’s where the chaos began. Maria Sharapova immediately rose to the top spot, Ana Ivanovic grabbed it a few weeks later, Jankovic stole it in mid-August, Serena ripped it back by winning the Open, and then Jankovic ascended again in the fall and has sat on it ever since.
“That’s the face of tennis today — a player reaching No. 1 without winning a Grand Slam,” said Henin’s coach, Carlos Rodriguez, of Jankovic, who was 0-9 against Henin. “It’s a sign. She’s a good player, but when you see Sharapova and the Williams sisters, they not only win Grand Slams, they also have charisma. They give something extra, not only hitting balls. There’s more behind them.”
Rodriguez, an intense and thoughtful man who took Henin out of the juniors to tennis fame, just opened with Henin a branch of their 6th Sense Tennis Academy at the Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. They both see an opportunity in the U.S., where many parents of juniors are looking for intelligent coaches with proven track records who understand that teaching children to be champions is more than just about stroke production.
Rodriguez says that one of the reasons Henin is retired is that she’s looking to prove to herself that she can do more than just “hit the ball,” and will only likely consider a comeback once she has taken a very necessary mental break.
But what Henin’s retirement left, after her most dominant season ever in ‘07, was a tour with only three legitimate Hall-of-Fame caliber players and a bunch of developing competitors who really couldn’t hold her worn-out socks.
“I have a lot of respect for the other players, but outside of the Willamses and Sharapova, the rest are still really poor,” Rodriguez said.
It’s not like the Argentine doesn’t like the potential of some. It’s just that they are so wildly inconsistent. Take Roland Garros champion Ivanovic, who looked terrific coming off her French Open victory. She won Indian Wells and reached the Australian Open final, but a thumb injury and the pressure of being a hunted player got to her. She only won one medium-sized title (Linz) after June. At the WTA Championships, she caught a virus and was ousted in round-robin play.
“Ana can do big things, but she needs more maturity. It’s very difficult for a player to learn what to do when she’s in trouble,” Rodriguez said. “Ivanovic is not able to have a plan B or C to solve the situations, and she loses complete control. The coach can help with this, but in the end, it’s up to the player to find for herself what possibilities will work.”
No. 3 Dinara Safina had a breakout year, winning four titles, reaching the French Open final and coming close to the No. 1 ranking, but the Russian failed in her four greatest tests — against Ivanovic in the French Open final, against eventual gold medalist Elena Dementieva in the Olympic semifinals, against Serena in the U.S. Open semis and then at the Championships. She looked tired and failed to win any of her three matches in Doha.
If she had won the WTA Championships, Dementieva might have deserved Player of the Year consideration after her spectacular performance in Beijing. But she didn’t have enough in the tank in Doha and fell to Zvonareva in the semis.
No. 2 Serena Williams would have been the Player of the Year pick had she won the WTA year-ender. A lack of conditioning and match play after winning the U.S. Open doomed her, as she was forced to retire in her round-robin match against Dementieva.
Once again, Serena — who not only won her ninth Grand Slam title but took Tier I crowns in Miami and Charleston and reached the Wimbledon final — imploded in the fall. Stung by criticism that she wasted the last two months of the year, she erupted angrily when asked by a reporter (who had seen her hitting prior to the contest with Dementieva) why she was unable to put the pain behind her and give it her all. Williams was clearly the POY in ‘02 and ‘03, but her ‘08 season doesn’t approach those.
“Serena has the quality and everything she needs mentally and physically to do it,” Rodriguez said. “But is she going to take care of herself and prepare to go into action? If she does that, Serena has another two or three great years left.”
Australian Open champ Maria Sharapova had a great start to the year, but faded quickly because of a tear in her right rotator cuff. When she returns to defend her Aussie Open title in January, she’ll have more than likely fallen out of the top eight and will have missed the vast majority of the second part of the season. Whether the three-time Grand Slam titlist can ever truly dominate is an open question.
“She showed that she’s able to dominate, but it’s not a question of once in a while — it’s a question of regularity, and the only way she can do it is to concentrate 100 percent on her tennis,” Rodriguez said. “If Maria doesn’t do that, she’s never going to find the consistency throughout the year. In tennis, to be a champion, you have to choose to do everything you have to succeed in your sport. Today Maria is unable to do so.”
Crossover-celebrity Sharapova has always stressed that her tennis comes first, and it’s hard to argue with her resume. But it’s also clear that carrying a $26-million-per-year off-court portfolio can be demanding. Rodriguez doesn’t think that it’s only her injuries that are holding her back.
“She has to concentrate, practice and live for her tennis — no endorsements, publicity and wasting time outside of the court with other things that distract you from No. 1,” he said. “Once and for all, in front of the mirror, she has to ask herself, ‘What do I want to achieve in my career? I have all the possibilities to be No. 1 and stay there for a long time, but this is the price I have to pay.’”
But outside of the Williams sisters and Sharapova, there are no players on tour who can consistently win ugly when the chips are down, their bodies are aching and their foes are zoning in on them. That’s part of the makeup that Henin had — her innate ability to fight like an alley cat even when being attacked by every mangy dog in the alley.
“You can’t teach that,” Rodriguez said. “You can learn a lot of things, but you cannot change the natural personality of a player. With Serena, Venus, Justine and Jennifer Capriati, they have the personality that even if they weren’t enjoying it, they could go through. There’s no question that Maria and Serena and Venus are far and away from the other players. Their quality is too good.”
Henin put a hurt on all of those players, who also got back at the Belgian in some of the finest matches the tour has seen this century. They may not miss losing to her, but Serena and Sharapova have admitted to missing the thrill of the battle against Henin, trying to figure out which strategy would work against the cagey all-courter’s high-variety game. But Henin isn’t coming back anytime soon, if at all, so now it’s up to one of three other elite players to dominate like the Belgian did in ‘07.
And what of Venus? Do a fifth Wimbledon title, a middle-sized crown in Zurich and her first WTA Championships crown give her the nod for Player of the Year? Maybe, but it’s hard not to forget her other results, which included a mind-blowing loss to Ivanovic in Australia, a sloppy defeat to Flavia Pennetta at the French Open and inconsistent play in her loss to Serena at the U.S. Open.
But credit Venus with this — in Doha, she was gutsy, creative and powerful, beating Safina in straight sets before four entertaining three-set wins over Dementieva, Serena, Jankovic and then Zvonareva, who was leaping at the ball from inside the baseline and was having the tournament of her life.
Even though Venus has been struggling with anemia, she’s a much more psychologically fit player than most of the other elite players. As John McEnroe says, winning final sets isn’t always about physical conditioning, it’s often about mind over matter.
“It’s fantastic to end the season this way,” said Williams, who won her 39th career title, but who has missed the WTA Championships five times due to injury or illness. “I’ve never really had the opportunity to play this tournament very often so it’s really awesome to have that opportunity and to play well.”
In ‘09, Venus will play her 15th season. If her history is any indicator, she won’t be winning title after title, but should be good for two to three. But if those titles are significant ones, like Wimbledon and the Championships, she won’t care how many trophies she raises.
It’s all about quality title wins this year and given that she’s the only player to have won two of the big six (the four Grand Slams, the Olympics and the Championships), maybe she does deserve Player of the Year.
Credit No. 1 Jankovic for having a consistent year, but her four titles (Rome, Beijing, Stuttgart and Moscow) don’t measure up against Williams’ three.
“This puts me in a great position next year to keep climbing,” the sixth-ranked Williams said. “I’ve played this year pretty equal and I hope to stay healthy. I can only go higher.”
