Serena Williams: American Star Is Only Real Contender Left in Field

To say that women's tennis is a jumbled mess at this point would be a gross understatement. Thanks to injuries and inconsistent play, the championship contenders and early-round exits are often the same players at different points of the tournament.

This US Open is the most recent example of that. Several highly-ranked players have already bowed out and Kim Clijsters, who is always dangerous, had to withdraw from the tournament before it even began. Thanks to all that uncertainty, Serena Williams has emerged as a near sure thing to win it all.

Williams, as recently as a few months ago, was a big question mark for this tournament. She had missed most of the tournaments on the WTA Tour and her workload, which is usually very light anyway, was even lighter. We had very little idea of what she would look like when she finally hit the courts in New York.

As it turns out, she looks very much like her old self. In her two straight-set victories, she has only dropped three games. Her serve looks as good as it ever has and she is moving incredibly well, particularly considering she missed a significant amount of time recently with a foot injury.

One of the supposed favorites still in the field awaits her in the third round in the person of fourth-ranked Victoria Azarenka. Serena is the lower-ranked player, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that feels that she isn't the prohibitive favorite to win.

I don't mean any disrespect to Caroline Wozniacki or Vera Zvonareva, the first and second-ranked players respectively, but they don't inspire confidence as top players at a Grand Slam event. Neither has come home with a Grand Slam title and until you get that first one, it's hard to take you seriously as a real contender.

With so many top players exiting the tournament already, it's popular to say that the draw is "opening up" for Serena, but I don't know that it matters. With the way she has played so far, she looks capable of beating anyone at anytime.