After the first round the U.S. Open have already lost the winners of the other Grand Slam tournaments of this year after Kim Clijsters, who was also the winner of the last two editions of the U.S. Open, had to give up defending her title due to physical problems.
The first big surprise came on Monday when Petra Kvitova (photo ©Carine06), who less than two months ago won Wimbledon, lost her first round 7-6 (3) 6-3 to Alexandra Dulgheru confirming the negative results she had after that big win. The Czech player in fact played bad in the last tournaments, where she was already seen out of shape, especially in her limited mobility. Inevitably, after winning Wimbledon she must have received literally thousands of requests for interviews and invitations to various events. That’s not an easy situation to handle for a young player at her first major victory.
Yesterday there was the second big surprise when Na Li (photo ©Sascha Grabow), the finalist at the Australian Open and winner at Roland Garros, lost her first round to Simona Halep 6-2 7-5. The Romanian is a young emerging player but Na Li is a mature player from whom we expect consistent performances throughout the season. Yesterday instead the Chinese made 54 unforced errors, a huge amount, also compared with her 22 winners. In yesterday’s match Simona Halep was the player who looked like a veteran showing the best of her skills.
After these surprises, critics of today’s women tennis found new arguments to state that women’s level is lower than in the past, when the best players easily won the early rounds of Grand Slam tournaments.
Actually there have always been surprises, even among men. The fact that today players average level is higher than in the past has its influence too. However it’s true that today there’s not a dominating player but there’s a group of players who think they can win Grand Slam tournaments but very few of them have consistent performances throughout the season.
Caroline Wozniacki is number 1 in the WTA ranking because she plays many tournaments and is probably the most consistent in her results, however in Grand Slam tournaments so far she failed to give her best so she’s considered a queen without a crown.
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It’s no accident that after the first round surprises Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are considered the favorites to win the U.S. Open. They are two players who have already won Grand Slam tournaments and have been number 1 in the WTA ranking, therefore a final between the two of them would make the news in a positive way. It would certainly be a good thing for women’s tennis.
