Followers of women’s tennis have been asking the question for a solid 10 years now: Who’s next? In that time we’ve received just one correct answer, in the long and loud form of Maria Sharapova. Now, though, as a new decade has begun and an old cast of Grand Slam winners has reassembled, we appear to have discovered the truth. The past will be next. Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, maybe Sharapova—can we conceive of a women’s-tennis world beyond their dominance?
This past weekend’s Dubai final, between Venus, who is 29, and Victoria Azarenka, who is 20, proved again how hazy the future remains, and how difficult it will be to make one take shape. Azarenka, along with 19-year-old Caroline Wozniacki, is the best hope for the current “new generation”—in pro-tennis, generations turn over every 18 months or so—to produce a consistent champion and member of the Top 5. In fact, Azarenka is already No. 6 in the world, while Wozniacki has been to a major final and is a stunning, though only semi-meaningful, No. 3. With those high rankings, at their tender ages, we should be able to say with confidence that we have seen the WTA’s future. But we can’t.
After a weary end to 2009, Azarenka has found her top form again this season, and she played a quality match against Williams in Dubai. Even more important and impressive was the way she handled herself. Maybe Azarenka felt like she had little to lose against a seven-time Slam winner, or maybe she looked at the match as a learning experience, but the sometimes-surly and always intense Vika maintained her poise even after her ugliest errors, and even when she fell behind in the middle of each set. She looked thoughtful rather than angry after her misses, she took an extra deep breath before serving on crucial points, and she continued to try to implement her and her coach’s game plan—move forward as soon as possible, but mix up the approaches—with admirable persistence. She even smiled a few times. Of course, this being Azarenka, she also bashed herself in her forehead with her racquet after one boneheaded forehand. But overall, her agitated energy was more helpful than hurtful, more engaging than grating.
The same was true of her game. Azarenka is known primarily as a hungry battler with a top-shelf backhand, but she showed flashes of her underrated athleticism and hands against Williams. Twice she took a backhand out of the air from behind the service line and hit a perfect topspin swing volley into the corner. When Venus had her on the run along the baseline, she managed to surprise her by sending a stretch forehand back crosscourt for a winning pass. And as her coach, Sam Sumyk, emphasized, Azarenka took the ball early and moved forward whenever she had even the slightest opportunity.
And she still lost. In straight sets. The first and most obvious reason is the physical difference between the two players. While Venus, who is listed at 6-foot-1, is only three inches taller than the 5-foot-10 Azarenka, the disparity seemed to be much greater in their respective lengths—Venus covers more ground with her legs and generates more pace with her arms. Most important, she wins many more free points on her serve than Azarenka, who finished this match with no aces to her name. Her forward-moving strategy was really a strategy of last resort; Azarenka and Sumyk decided that to have any chance at all, she needed to push her game beyond where it normally goes, to hit shots she normally doesn’t hit. On many occasions I would say this was a fool's plan, that you should stick to your own game until it’s proven that it can’t work. But while Azarenka paid the price for her aggression with errors and failed forays to the net, I think it was the right tactic against an in-form Venus.
Still, the match didn’t look like a battle between the No. 5 and 6 players in the world as much as it did a battle between a woman and a girl, an all-time talent and a solid citizen of the second tier. I like Azarenka’s game, but its limits thus far—lack of variety and a point-ending weapon—only point up again how big a leap the Williams sisters made for the women’s game, both in terms of physical capability and mental strength. Venus has taken her share of losses over the years, but her bedrock confidence in herself is rarely shaken. Her losses always seem random, rather than part of a trend of poor play. What young player can measure up to that? It's hard to imagine Azarenka, whose game slowly but inexorably slid last year, ever being that serene about her abilities. It makes me wonder whether the group of champions in their late 20s on both the men’s and women’s sides—namely, Roger Federer, Henin, and the Williams sisters—will be remembered as a sort of Greatest Generation among tennis fans of the future. With their unstoppable weapons and the mental strength that comes with knowing they own those weapons, these players have leapt ahead, and no one younger has been able to keep up with them for long. They're a lot to live up to.
Azarenka ran head-on into her own limits at the end of each set. In the second, at 5-5, 15-30, after fending off her opponent with hard-hit backhands all match, Vika finally bashed one 10 feet wide. She dropped her racquet and held her hands to her face. She was broken soon after, and despite staving off two match points in the next game, she was done in by the fundamental superiority of Williams’ serve and forehand, both of which Venus hit for winners.
Even more telling was how the first set ended. Down 2-5, Azarenka called Sumyk onto the court. He reiterated their basic strategy—move forward at the earliest opportunity and don’t let Williams win the battle of positioning at the baseline, which in women’s tennis has become the equivalent of the old tactic of not letting your opponent take the net from you. He also told her to hit the ball up the middle in rallies and approach to different sides of the court. Azarenka, absorbing the lesson well, did all of these things successfully to hold the next game.
At 3-5, though, she stuck to the game plan a little too well. Given a short forehand, Azarenka went crosscourt with her approach, into Venus’ forehand. You might think Venus would have been surprised by this. She wasn’t. She was waiting, ready to rip the ball past a stumbling Azarenka. It was as if Venus was sending a message to her young challenger about this match, and to everyone else about the future: You kids still have a lot to learn.