Serena Williams, US Open 2011: Williams Exposes Weak State of Women's Tennis

Women's tennis has become a jumbled pile of mediocrity. Serena Williams' run at the US Open puts this on vivid display.

Williams is destroying her competition at the 2011 US Open. She is proving that as long as she is healthy, she can roll onto the court and absolutely dominate the competition. She looks further ahead of the competition now than she has at any point in her career. 

And while that is a true testament to Williams' greatness, it does not say a whole lot about the rest of women's tennis.

Due to missing most of the season as a result of her serious health problems, Serena entered this tournament as the 28th seed. This left Serena with a harder than usual path. It has made little difference.

Serena has played six matches on her way to making the finals and has yet to lose a set. She has had just two sets where her opponents have won more than four games.

So far, Serena has won 74 games and lost just 29. These are simply mind-boggling numbers. Pushing the mind-boggle meter even further up the dial is the fact that she has defeated the WTA's No. 1, 5, 16 and 19 players.

These women aren't even close. And this is certainly not a tournament you'd expect Serena to be at her dominating best. Serena had a one-year layoff that lasted until June of this year. She played in Wimbledon, which was just her second tournament of the year. 

She showed her rust in that tournament, but that rust quickly fell by the wayside. Tennis quickly moved onto the hard-court action as it prepared for the US Open.

This is where Serena Williams is at her best, and she quickly proved it. She won back-to-back tournaments and then withdrew from her final tournament before the US Open, citing a toe injury.

It was easy to speculate that it was less the pain in her toe and more that Serena was bored dominating her competition; she knew she was ready to dominate the US Open and likely withdrew accordingly.

Serena has essentially been a part-time player. And she is still wiping the court with these women. If there were any other legitimate Grand Slam champion players in the women's field, this would never happen.