How boring is women's tennis right now? There hasn't even been a topic started to cover the last 2 or 3 tournaments.

The best player on the tour at the moment is Wozniacki.

Wozniacki's game/personality isn't particularly interesting to watch and she doesn't even look good in the Adidas Stella Mccartney line.

Wozniacki will be another Jankovic or Safina. She will play so much that she will be at the top of the rankings, but never win a major because of burn out or injuries.

Henin and Clijsters are trying to not make that mistake with their second careers.

Hey Dedric,

Agreed on the yawning of the women's tour. Major predictable now. Miss the real combat of players and Quarters on up with players like Capriati, Henin, Clijsters, Davenport, Williams', Dementieva, Sharipova, , Kuznetsova, and (early) Jankovic days. Used to see the Quarters set ups and get the VCR/DVR programmed. And can they PLEASE hold serve??? Can't they all just study the Davenport/S. Williams service motions and get their serves in gear!? At least E. Dementieva got that woop-woop 70 mph slicer-out-wide serve fixed and now has a decent motion.

Now even with the Tennis Channels HD broadcasts of events, its...yawn..."uh oh, there is Wozniacki again" who is steady and solid in her strokes...but doesn't do anything except run side to side and hit, give her a drop shot and the point is over.....nothing exciting to watch.

Or we get to listen to that horrible squeeler (Sharipova's louder wannabee sister in noise levels) V. Azarenka!! I watched in PAIN, a Sharipova/Azarenka match in HD and had to MUTE the sound it was SO freakn irritating man. If they could sanction M. Seles in '91 at Wimby for her real exhale grunts on her ground strokes, which ruined her run and the entire Slam overall; they could/should definately force Azarenka to tone down that noise with her squeeling as she bends over to pick up a ball during matches, ya know?

And then we have Radwanska at #8 and the Chinese players Li and Zheng coming up on the #10 spots at 11th and 16th places? Now I'm actually tuning into the ATP for excitement (views of course, woof!) and competition now.

What the heck is going on with the WTA?

The WTA is watered down today, in the sense of quality. You win matches with your mind, heart, guts and legs. If you rely on just your shots, you'll have good days and not so good days. Venus, Serena, Clijsters, Henin (and to a lesser extent now Sharapova) today have that combination of elements - which is why they dominate (or have dominated) at the Majors. Capriati, Davenport, Hingis, Seles, Graf, Sanchez-Vicario, Navratilova, Evert, Austin, King, Court - they all had the intellect, fitness & courage in addition to their shots. Those intangible elements of what's inside them is what provided their consistency. They thought their way out of a lot of matches when their shots weren't doing the job alone.

Today's WTA is comprised of a bunch of Junior Girls fresh out of Tennis Academies who basically utilize the racquet & string technology to do all of their heavy lifting. They don't necessarily outplay their opponents so much as outhit their opponents on a given day. But you can see so many of them have no Plan B once their big hitting isn't getting it done. That's why so many WTA matches today have a preponderance of errors as opposed to winners. It's why someone like Clijsters was able to come back and rip through the US Open in her 3rd tournament after 2 years away; or Justine can go all the way to the AO Final in just her second time back after two years gone; or Serena can comeback being down a set and TWO breaks to someone like Azarenka. Those intangibles plus their games are what make them compelling to watch and formidable to beat. Compare that to the slides of players like Ivanovic & Jankovic; the inconsistency and "a cut below-ness" of players like Dementieva, Kuznetsova & Safina (does anyone really believe Ana Ivanovic is going to make a big return & win another Major?). Many of the WTA Tour today aren't cut from the same cloth mentally as the champions of today and yesteryear. The majority of them are the extent of their equipment, and that's about it. So it doesn't make for compelling tennis to watch.

Well, RIGHT now, the top players aren't playing. But I actually think the important tournaments (Australia, Indian Wells, and Miami) this year have all been interesting, in different ways. Australia had the big Justine's return storyline and ended with a satisfying final between arguably the two best players of their generation. Indian Wells was a bit of a train wreck, but it put Jankovic back on the map and showed us that while scintillating at best, the Belgians are still inconsistent. Miami was quite good (I think--there was virtually no television coverage) until the disappointing final.

The WTA is facing a serious problem resulting from the implosion of the younger generation. The most talented players in it have collapsed (Sharapova, Ivanovic, the now-retired (!) Vaidisova) leaving what should have been supporting characters to carry the torch. But this year, with the Belgians back and the Williams Sisters playing well when healthy, it's been more interesting than it's been in a few years.

Thanks, JC. I thought I was imagining things. I can maybe see complaining about the boring women's game in the 2008 to 2009 stretch, but things are getting pretty interesting these days, even if April has been sleepy so far while the biggest names are still resting up. I actually thought IW & Miami were pretty decent - unfortunately Venus was a wreck in the final, but the way she and Kim got there was pretty cool. I also enjoyed seeing the plucky Jankovic and Wozniacki emerging from the dominoes that fell at IW.

Speaking of which, the main issue with the WTA is flakiness. I can get that it loses credibility for its top players to spend half the time invisible or embarrassing themselves on the court. This is why it's ironic that the complainers then turn around and criticize players who reach the top like Wozniacki, Jankovic and Safina for being solid, consistent performers - who DO/DID excel week in, week out - just because the biggest prizes eluded them, when their rankings included excellent results at majors as well (with several semis and finals reached).

[Except that in the men's game, we have a #4 player who is on mental sabbatical, a #2 player who get there because the former #2 pulled up lame last summer and is hitting a jai alai serve these days (thanks to whoever it was here who came up with that one!), a #3 who seems to have forgotten how to close out matches like a champion (although he might be coming around now), and the #5 and #6 players with the most momentum of anybody at the end of last year warming the bench now (Davy and Delpo). Our finals at the "fifth and sixth" majors were Roddick v Ljubicic and Roddick v Berdych. Wow! I like Andy as much as anybody, but watching him making hay while the sun shines (i.e. Fed can't be bothered) isn't too thrilling.]

Is the quality of tennis different? Well, for mostly physiological reasons, women's tennis has always been qualitatively different from men's - that isn't new and the comparison is even less fair now that the game has become so physical. It's just a matter of personal taste after all is said and done. Variety is also another issue, I'll readily agree, but there will probably not be another Henin for some time to come. But the men's tour has Federer and Murray and then - how varied is the rest of the Top 20? Every player has his nuances, but although players like Soderling and Tsonga can show flashes of inspiration, they pretty much have two modes: hit big, and hit bigger.

I just can't wrap my head around calling the women's game boring as opposed to the men's game, when Federer has won SIXTEEN of the last 26 majors (and reached the final at EIGHT of the ten which he lost). Yes, yes, greatest of all time, etc etc. But isn't anybody else just a wee bit tired of his keeping the game hostage? Maybe they weren't in 2008, because the next tier seemed to finally be rising to the occasion, but that hasn't happened after all. He keeps threatening to play well into his thirties, too, which fills me with dread (I say this only partially tongue in cheek). I love tennis, but I enjoy men's tennis in spite of Fed, not because of him. I respect his tennis ability and achievements, and I dig his Euro-chic, but that's about it. I can't be the only one who doesn't need to see Murray or Roddick crumbling before him in yet another major (at least A-Rod took a really, really long time to crumble at last year's Wimby I guess), while Djoko and Rafa pull no-shows. I admit that part of why Del Potro's victory seemed so huge was because it came against Fed, but that's just it - the fact that at last there was a different result and from somebody NEW made it so thrilling. Why was the Wimbledon 2008 final instantly billed as the greatest ever? An added selling point, undoubtedly, is that somebody finally toppled Fed from his grass throne - which of course he just reclaimed the next year and probably will this one as well. In the interest of fairness, even though I am a Rafa fan I can also see others groaning inwardly as he seems to be gearing up to owning another clay season as well. Another point in the boring column?

At the end of the day, if you (a general you) don't like women's tennis, nobody is forcing you to watch it. It's that simple. Of course, that doesn't mean earnestly discussing its flaws and merits (as opposed to just slagging off the WTA entirely) - which I think applies to this thread by the way, which I appreciate - is out of bounds or anything. So that's just my two cents on the matter.

My one cent is that Stosur played some great tennis on the green clay today walloping Zvonareva. Four smart winners in a row in the very first game and little turning back. She was dominant in terms of power and she used angles -- so crucial on clay -- quite well.

If she keeps in form I'd make her one of the top 4-5 contenders at the French. She made the semis last year and is playing better this year.

I wish I'd placed a bet with that one cent!

Wimbledon seems kinda open and not boring to me. Stosur's kick serve might work well there, too. Sharapova looks to be coming back into form. Venus and Serena are established champs. And we know about Henin's dream.

In answer to the topic question...not at all!
When was the last time you saw 2 gay women in a major final?