ADVANTAGE?
Serena’s absence can open door for Russian
SERENA WILLIAMS taking maternity leave will be felt by many in the women’s game, but one thing it will not affect is Maria Sharapova’s hope of gaining a French Open wildcard.
‘Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are two unconnected cases. We’re staging a Grand Slam, not a casting,’ said French Federation president Bernard Giudicelli yesterday.
The Roland Garros wildcard decision will be made in the middle of next month, with Wimbledon having to make their stance clear sometime in early June.
Beyond the bombast of the French tennis supremo there are more lingering questions. How damaging will it be for women’s tennis to lose its leading star?
And who will can take advantage of what is now the most wide open — or perhaps weak — field at the top of the game for years?
Margaret Court, the Australian legend who is one Grand Slam title ahead of 35-year-old Williams on 24, was weighing in on all related matters.
Court, 74, won three of her big titles in 1973, after giving birth to her son Daniel and told Reuters in Australia: ‘Coming back after Daniel I had one of my best years. But, at 31, I was quite a few years younger than Serena.
‘I think you’ve got to know physically what you can do. It will depend whether she still feels like doing it. It depends who’s coming through, too.
‘There’s not the depth in the women’s game like there is in the men’s. It’s not good for women’s tennis, which is a shame.’
Some of the statistics surrounding the top of the women’s game right now are startling. With Williams indisposed, there are only five Grand Slam titles held among the whole of the active top 10 — two for Angelique Kerber and Svetlana Kuznetsova and one for Garbine Muguruza.
This will change when Sharapova’s doping ban expires next Wednesday, as her haul of five majors will double that amount. Suddenly it does not look too fanciful to think she could even add to her tally, given her pedigree. Remarkably, of the last nine women’s Grand Slam winners only three will be active.
The WTA have undoubtedly been unlucky that their new Grand Slam winners either retire soon after a big triumph — think Marion Bartoli and Li Na — or simply fade away in the wake of it, which happened with Ana Ivanovic, Samantha Stosur and, most recently, Muguruza.
‘It’s like they have one win and they think “well, that’s it”. They’re made. It’s a bit sad in many ways,’ said Court, who harked back to her competition from Billie Jean King and company.
It was very late on Wednesday night that Williams’s publicist confirmed her pregnancy, saying that the baby was due in the autumn but pledging that the seven-times Wimbledon champion will be back next year.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray’s hangover from the end of 2016 continues, with the latest episode being yesterday’s humbling loss of a match from 4-0 up in the deciding set. Yet the world No 1 was in relatively sanguine mood after being beaten 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the third round of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters by world No.24 Albert Ramos-Vinolas. The Scot now has to decide whether to add a tournament next week, in either Budapest or Barcelona, to his schedule, or do extra training before his next Masters level event, in Madrid next month. Either way Murray needs to put his latest setback behind him, albeit one against a Spaniard who came in having played 18 clay court matches this season already. ‘I’m disappointed to lose from the position that I was in,’ he said. ‘If you look at the scoreline, it was 7-5 in the third. One week ago I would have been okay with that. But sitting here, having been 4-Love up in the third, I haven’t lost many matches like that in my career. Maybe tomorrow or a day after I’ll be able to look back a little bit and think where I’m at now from where I was a week ago.’
He was referring to his recent elbow injury, which came on top of several viral illnesses this year.
‘My elbow felt pretty good. I served much better today than I did yesterday. That’s only going to get better.’
He is not unduly alarmed at his match record for 2017, which is so far 13-4.
‘It’s been a difficult year for me because I know what it takes to get right up to the top and to have consistent results.
‘You need to be working in week in week out and this year has been stop-start for me, for a few different reasons. Now that I’m feeling better again I’m hoping that with the hard work I’m going to put in now that my results will start to pick up.’
His lead as No.1 is still considerable, although it could start coming under pressure if he does not go deep in his next two big events, the Madrid and Italian Opens.