U.S. women's tennis hitting a slump
Posted by Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com
Hey, has anyone checked out the lineup for the U.S. Fed Cup team, which will be hosting Argentina at Surprise, Ariz., this weekend? It features a pair of 30-somethings: Jill Craybas (the "household name" on the squad) and Julie Ditty, whose ranking is south of No. 100 -- with little chance of improving, given her age.
I wish them the best of luck, and it isn't as if the Argentina squad, led by Gisela Dulko, is unbeatable. In fact, the U.S. could win this thing if 17-year-old Fed Cup rookie Melanie Oudin gets inspired and 34-year-old Craybas takes a good long drink from the fountain of youth. But the fact that Oudin and Ditty, who turned 30 a few days ago, are both Fed Cup first-timers means the U.S. has the experience thing covered at both ends of the spectrum -- and not in a good way.
How did it come to this? I mean, the Russian Fed Cup team is putting out Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova -- an Olympic gold medalist (in singles) and a top-5 former Grand Slam champ, respectively. The Italians are going with an A-team of solid tour veterans (and former Fed Cup winners), Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone. The French feature rising young star Alize Cornet and former Wimbledon and Australian Open champ Amelie Mauresmo.
Obviously, Venus Williams and Serena Williams chose to pass up Fed Cup. That's consistent with their approach to tennis these days. About the only place you can bank on their showing up to play lately is the Grand Slam events, and frankly I have my doubts about how eager they'll be to do battle on the slow red clay of Roland Garros, come May.
But the fact that all the other U.S. women ranked above Craybas (who's at No. 75) also chose to skip Fed Cup is pretty alarming.
What? There are no U.S. players ranked above No. 75? Can that be?
You bet, but with an asterisk. That punctuation mark is Bethanie Mattek-Sands (No. 40), who was ready to play for the Stars and Stripes until she was sidelined by injury. Yes, after Venus and Serena, the next two names on the depth chart are Mattek-Sands and … 34-year-old Craybas.
This underlines the terrible shape the U.S. women's game is in these days, and it underscores the fact that the fame and popularity of the Williams sisters is like a towering, gorgeous veneer. Poke your finger through it, and there's nothing else back there. This is an even more shocking state of affairs than exists on the men's side, where there's a fistful of scrappy guys (Sam Querrey, John Isner, Robby Ginepri, Bobby Reynolds et al.) doing a little damage here and there in support of Andy Roddick and James Blake.
Nobody has been affected more profoundly by the globalization of the game than the U.S., and the women's game has degenerated even more rapidly than the men's. Fortunately, hope for Americans is on the horizon. Patrick McEnroe, who heads the USTA's Elite Development Program, says the U.S. has a pretty good crop of youngsters coming through the pipeline.
The hope is that those girls pop out of that tube quickly because if Venus and Serena decide to quit the stage, there won't be an American left to sing in the pro tennis choir, never mind perform a solo.
Peter Bodo
