The WTA: Making Their Own Time Off
The news that seven of the World’s Top 20 women professional players have not played since the US Open, and do not plan to play till next year, will not come as a surprise to any fan following the Women’s Tennis Association and its erratic players. These
seven players have dropped out either due to illness or injury, and it doesn’t stop here; at least two other players may still drop out of the year-end championships.
The seven players who have already called it quits for the year are World Number 4 Venus Williams, Number 12 Justine Henin, Number 14 Agnieszka Radwanska, Number 17 Nadia Petrova, Number 18 Maria Sharapova and Number 19 Svetlana Kuznetsova. Players who
are expected to follow suit are Number 5 Kim Clijsters and Number 11 Na Li, who have both been down with injuries lately.
This is not uncommon. While tournament organizers for upcoming events such as the WTA Doha Championships and the Bali Tournament of Champions hope to avoid further withdrawals, many players seem to be planning to take time off whether it’s scheduled on the
official calendar or not. While complaints over the duration of the pro tennis season are not uncommon, the WTA’s schedule is already almost three weeks shorter than that of the ATP (which is, however, voting to shorten theirs as well).
While injuries cannot be avoided, the question to be asked is whether or not these seven players would somehow find it in themselves to pull through if these tournaments held the same importance as the Grand Slam events, or if they themselves were one of
the Majors. While the WTA tries its best to make these events more of an attraction to both players and spectators by giving great monetary rewards – the Doha Champion will rake in 1.5 million dollars this year – they are obviously not enough to attract professionals
or for that matter fans.
When the US Open ends, fans take the same route as players and put aside their interest in tennis till the Australian Open. The solution for this problem may lie in shortening the time difference between the US Open Tournament and the end of year championships.
This would serve to give more time off to the top players, while the interest generated by the US Open would be enough for those invited to participate in the events. The problem lies herein: second-tier players, or players who are not the Williams sisters,
do not feel that they can afford to take any time off. This is a mistake: without the proper amount of rest and mental recuperation, the players may not be up to form anyway. Players feel that stepping away completely from a game like tennis for an extended
period of time is tantamount to self-sabotage.
For the time-being, the players still expected to participate are Caroline Wozniacki, Serena Williams (who has not yet pulled out officially), Clijsters (who may still make it back despite her surgery), Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva, Francesca Schiavone,
Samantha Stosur and Vera Zvonareva. Some other participants will be Daniela Hantuchova, Yanina Wickmayer, Aravane Rezai, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Alisa Kleybanova. Na Li is still expected to participate in the Bali event, but will qualify for Doha if Serena
drops out as expected. Along with these players, Ana Ivanovic has managed to claim wild card entry to the event due to her Generali Ladies Linz success.
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