(Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
Although the American tennis establishment will never admit this the Williams Sisters "are" women's tennis. If the Williams Sisters are not playing womens tennis would be non existent. Serena and Venus are the only Americans with a realistic chance to win the French Open.
However, if you read the newspapers and the internet the world media is only focused on the men's French Open event. Women's tennis has been criticized for decades for not having depth. Now the WTA tour finally has the depth because any woman in the top ten can win a grand slam event.
The WTA tour does not have a "dominant" number one, but that's actually good for the sport. The press has complained that since Justine Henin retired in 2008 the quality of the tennis has declined but this is false. Henin retired since she was burned out due to the increased depth in the game.
Henin was blasted off the court by Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams at the Australian Open and at the Miami Masters. Henin quit because she could not handle losing to the other top women.
The Williams Sisters are also the only American females currently ranked in the top ten. The rest of the WTA top ten are various Russians and Serbian tennis players.
Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, and Vera Zvonareva are all solid players. The quandary for the Eastern European women is they do not have the mental toughness.
The Russians and the Serbs have proven they are not good enough to challenge the Williams Sisters consistently. The only Eastern European woman that has the grand slam results to challenge the Williams Sisters is Maria Sharapova.
Given the fact that on the men's side Andy Roddick and James Blake are not contenders on the ATP Tour. The last time an American male won a grand slam was in the year 2003.
Roddick always has a petulant attitude on the tennis court screaming at the chair umpires and lines men and women during his tennis matches. Yet Roddick's unprofessional conduct is ignored. Does Roddick get a pass for his deleterious behaviour due to the fact he is a white male?
The Williams Sisters have always been professional on and off the tennis court they run clinics for youth, they are intelligent and thoughtful yet they are also not white.
Venus and Serena's strategy has been to not worry about the number one ranking they are focusing only on the grand slams. The Williams Sisters former rivals have either burned out or retired from the WTA Tour.
The constant negativity about the "lack" of spark in women's tennis is due to the fact the best female tennis players of this generation are "black women". Would the media complain if white women were dominating the WTA again?
Venus and Serena have won the last three grand slam events. Despite the Williams Sisters incredible success in tennis they are an anomaly due to the fact they are not white.
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