Forget Sexy Being Back. Serena Is Back, and the WTA Trembles

"I love to play, I love to win. I love holding up trophies ... I love the challenge and I love people saying what I can't do and proving them wrong."

Forget all about sexy being back. No one is saying what Serena can't do anymore. The woman nicknamed Terror Fabulous brought championship level tennis back to the women's game with her dominating performance through seven rounds of tennis.

On her way to the final there were two matches that would have made many a year-end best of list: Her three-set win over Nadia Petrova and her battle with Shahar Peer. The latter was a Battle Royale and when it was over what had been whispered was now being spoken aloud. Serena Williams had a chance to make the Women's Final at the Australian Open.

Only one woman stood in her way - a girl really. Nicole Vaidisova had quietly played her way into a semifinal face-off against Serena. At seventeen she showed class both before and after the match, refusing to be baited into making statements sure to inflame partisans in both the pro and anti-Williams camp and behaving more professionally than a young Martina Hingis had back in the day.

She brought that maturity to the court as well. In another year or two, she'll have the experience and will do what she almost did: defeat Serena in a Grand Slam match.

But this time she lost. And after Kim "just call me housewife" Clijsters folded like a cheap suit against Maria Sharapova the final no one expected took place in a closed Rod Laver Arena. The roof was closed due to the threat of inclement weather. There were murmurings about this but in the end it didn't matter.

Terror Fabulous let the tennis world know she was still a force to be reckoned with. Playing cold, cerebral tennis, she demolished the soon-to-be-ranked No. 1 with a devastating display of power and precision not seen among the women's ranks in two years.

After being hit by a ball, an accident on purpose, some said Serena mumbled, "You'll pay for that." She did not, however, go head hunting. Instead she buckled down and wiped up the court with the women's No. 1 player, reducing her to a spectator in her own match. The final score of 6-1, 6-2 does not reflect how one-sided the match was. Number 81 was now number 14 and those ranked above her are now shaking in their La Perla's.

Serena Williams is back.

The WTA

A couple of years ago there were long discussions on tennis boards about the state of the women's game. Many said it was fine because they liked a particular player or players and they liked that their favorite was heading towards the top of the rankings.

Others, trying to avoid the traps of fandom, said the product the WTA was presenting was inferior to that being fielded by the ATP and that if nothing was done about it the women's game would go back to what it was in the bad old days when a then out of shape Lindsay Davenport was insulted by one of the leading men's players. The arguments were fierce and while they've become more decorous thanks to sites which limit flaming and ban those who don't get it they still go on.

So what does all this have to do with the state of women's tennis?

Everything.


Former world number one Venus Williams, pictured in 2006, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion who missed the Australian Open with a left wrist injury, was named on the US Fed Cup team.

Instead of true athleticism and real rivalries being encouraged based on results, cults of personality were soon seen everywhere. If you criticized a certain player as undeserving or overhyped or a cheater, you were called various epithets by fans of that player. We were encouraged to ignore the unsportsmanlike conduct of the woman being promoted as the best thing since sliced bread and go for her looks before noticing her game.

Pop culture embraced this. Shakira's hit song "Hips Don't Lie" was used to promote a player with no discernable hips to speak of. West Side Story's iconic song "I Feel Pretty" was hauled out to show how envious everyone was of the player's looks when all she wanted to do was to play tennis. Mumblings about surprisingly easy draws were dismissed as mere jealousy by those upset that the Williams era was past. They were unwilling to accept the new Sharapova era.

All of that talk disintegrated to ashes on the rebound ace of Rod Laver Arena.

At the beginning of the year, I previewed the WTA but did not include Venus or Serena because of their injury induced rankings. Both women were well out of the top forty but I did say that if both women came back fully healthy and focused on tennis they'd both be back in the top 5. Many thought I was delusional.

Now I'm reading columns in which the words "surprising", "unexpected" and "unforeseen" are being used. One blogger said she'd gone back and looked at Serena's previous Grand Slam wins – all 7 of them - and that none of them was as dominating as this one had been.

So where does women's tennis go from here? Will we see the end of cupcake draws? Will the hype machine tamp down a bit and let on-court performance determine who gets the goodies and not ad agency pipe dreams?

I do think that notice was served about how good women's tennis can be. I think we'd forgotten the level of play that Venus and Serena made their competitors have to play or risk being run out of Dodge.

Melbourne announced three women who have that extra gear hardwired into their genes and will be able to step up. Shahar Peer, Jelena Jankovic, and Nicole Vaidisova are future stars who, if they remain injury free, will be able to step on the stage provided by the Williams sisters and stand toe-to-toe with them.

Justine Henin has never been able to keep up physically with Big Babe tennis as played by Serena and Venus. Martina Hingis was run out of the game by the quality and power of Venus and Serena. Amelie Mauresmo is too mentally fragile to stay in the pressure cooker the top 8 should be by the time the US Open rolls around. She may hang on by her fingernails but the pressure from the bottom may prove to be too much.

I don't think Nadia Petrova or Patty Schnyder will be in the top eight come the end of the year.

As for Maria Sharapova, the joy ride may be over. In sports, the powers that be (PTB)are willing to give you everything, but you must produce. Unsportsmanlike conduct, soft draws and overt cheating will be overlooked as long as you bring the goods. She has to bring the goods to Tokyo where she has Peer, Jankovic, and Ivanovic as well as Schiavone in her part of the draw. She has to prove the beatdown in Melbourne was simply a fluke. Many think she will withdraw from Tokyo. If she does it will make those who feel she is nothing more than hype feel vindicated in their beliefs.

IMG and the WTA has worked very hard to justify Maria's endorsement deals by engineering her way to the top of women's tennis. The posters for Oz featured Roger Federer, Amelie Mauresmo, Marcos Baghdatis and Maria Sharapova. Maybe the PTB in Australia knew about the problem's in Justine's life and so they didn't include her with the 2006 finalists, substituting Maria. I don't know.

I do know that Maria must do well in Tokyo and in every event she's entered going forward. Her serving woes have to be rectified. I look for her father to be fined if he does the bottle and banana show again. Criticism of her Bansidhe like screams seems to have made her lessen them. They were not that evident during the final but maybe that was because she was too busy trying to hold her game together.

Sabine Appelmans and Dominique Monami admitted that Carlos Rodriguez, Justine's coach, claims that Serena is the one player Justine fears the most, that her game does not match-up well with Serena's. Their head-to-head is 5-3 in Serena's favor, with all Justine's wins coming on clay.

With both Williams sisters back in the mix, I look for big changes in the top 8. No player plays totally uninjured, but if they play smart like Justine did last year both sisters should stay competitive during 2007. By that time, the level of the game with its new rivalries should give fans a lot more to enjoy.

And when the level of tennis is high the winners are the fans.

"I have it. I feel like I'm a great tennis player, that I was put on this earth to play tennis. I'm here to play tennis - I do that the best."

Thank you # 81.