The State of Tennis

If you listened to the Wimbledon preview podcast, you know that everything went according to my predictions. Well, almost. I had both Nadal and Sharapova taking the men's & women's Wimbledon title, and I was so close. So close. Anyway..

The Take Away: WTA
Regardless of how the matches may have played out, having nameless, albeit sometimes very attractive, players make it past the likes of the Williams sisters and then dominating Sharapova in the final, this year's Wimbledon was not good for the WTA.

The fact that the the No. 1 seed is meaningless became even more apparent this year with Caroline Wozniacki continuing her tradition of not making it to the final 8. There could be stability coming for the WTA, however. Both Williams sisters played relatively well considering the length of their absences, and Sharapova and her bad serving self seem to be back. Consistent play from top players such as Li Na and Petra Kvtiova is needed, and of course the return of Kim Clijsters. But going into US Open, the women's draw will be as confusing as ever.

Early US Open prediction: The winner will have the last name Williams

The Take Away: ATP
I thought that I would be arguing that Rafa Nadal is the 2nd greatest player of all time today, behind Rod Laver. If you dominate a player like Roger Federer rather consistently and have double digit majors there is no way that "number one" player can be better than you. Yet, thanks to Novak Djokovic, this was not to be the case. Djokovic is having just a legendary year and is becoming the player to Nadal that Nadal is to Federer. As a whole the ATP is extremely interesting. There are the top 3 players, but then there are players like Andy Murray, Jo-Willy Tsonga, Del Potro, and Gael Monfils, who no one would be shocked to see make it to the final and would make some great tennis.

Early US Open prediction: Novak, if be only plays no more than 2 US Open Series. Nadal if he plays 3 or more.

Although I have been down on the WTA, once the US Open Series starts I think you can expect some great tennis from both the men and women because there are a lot of players with something to prove.