{"id":441,"date":"2016-10-07T16:24:22","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T20:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=441"},"modified":"2016-10-07T16:25:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T20:25:42","slug":"forget-sharapova-kerber-is-the-new-queen-of-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2016\/10\/07\/forget-sharapova-kerber-is-the-new-queen-of-tennis\/","title":{"rendered":"Forget Sharapova, Kerber is the New Queen of Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the single most depressing aspect about the coverage this week of the reduction of Maria Sharapova\u2019s<\/strong> ban has been the reminder that for so many people (and indeed, so many media organizations and sponsors) around the world, she remains the face of women\u2019s tennis, despite the fact that in her absence this year so many other brilliant young women players have finally made the breakthrough and become champions, not least the new World No. 1, Angelique Kerber<\/strong>.\u00a0It is those others who should be dominating peoples’ thoughts about women\u2019s tennis as we reach the end of the season and not Sharapova.<\/p>\n

The fact is that throughout Sharapova\u2019s career, the scale of her fame (and fortune) have been out of proportion to her achievements on the court.\u00a0She is undoubtedly a hugely accomplished player, one of only ten women to have won the Career Grand Slam<\/strong>, but it is also unarguable that for most of her career she has been in the shadow of the great Serena Williams<\/strong>.\u00a0Indeed, probably the most extraordinary fact about Sharapova’s career is that she has only ever beaten Serena twice, and both times in 2004<\/strong>. She has not beaten Serena\u00a0once in the dozen years since and her last big match before her ban was imposed was another predictably limp defeat against\u00a0her\u00a0at this year’s Australian Open<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In thinking back to 2004, it is instructive to remember what the young Sharapova was like. When she won Wimbledon<\/strong> that year, she was only 17 and was genuinely thrilled to have won her first Major<\/strong>. Having won it, she completely\u00a0charmed the world by phoning her mother from Centre Court<\/strong> to share her triumph with her. Her mother was not with her that day and it soon emerged that she had not been with Sharapova for much of her life.\u00a0That was because when Sharapova had first showed great promise as a child in Russia<\/strong> and was encouraged by Martina Navratilova<\/strong> and others to travel to America<\/strong> to train full-time, her family only had enough money for her father to travel with her.\u00a0When she subsequently won Wimbledon, less than a decade later, it was both a classic \u201crags to riches\u201d story and an updating of the American dream, in which a young girl from a faraway land (which had once been America\u2019s greatest enemy) fulfilled her ambitions in the land of the free.<\/p>\n

That image is in stark contrast to the one that has been presented this week, in which Sharapova and some of her sponsors (notably Head Tennis<\/strong>) have presented the reduction of her drugs ban from two years to 15 months as some kind of triumph for natural justice.\u00a0On this occasion, the world did not share in or celebrate Sharapova’s supposed\u00a0“victory.”\u00a0As many commentators, such as Britain\u2019s Andrew Castle<\/strong>, have said, she really should have showed a lot more humility and at least some consideration of the damage she has done to the sport that has given her so much, not the least materially.<\/p>\n

That is especially true given that, in her absence this year, so many other young women players have finally emerged from her shadow, and the even bigger one cast by Serena, to announce themselves on the world stage, and to do so with the kind of\u00a0unalloyed joy\u00a0and generosity of spirit that Sharapova herself showed when she won Wimbledon in 2004.<\/p>\n

Top of that list, of course, is Angelique Kerber. She, not Sharapova, is the real story of 2016 in women\u2019s tennis.\u00a0For a long time, she had great\u00a0potential (she had reached her first Grand Slam<\/strong> semifinal in 2011, losing to the\u00a0eventual champion\u00a0Sam Stosur<\/strong>), but she had also appeared appeared unable to make the final breakthrough and reach a Slam final, let alone win it.\u00a0But that all changed this year, beginning in Australia, where she memorably beat Serena in the final before even more memorably collapsing into tears and paying probably the most heartfelt tribute to a beaten opponent that has ever been heard in the aftermath of a Major final. Some said it belonged on an Oscar-winner\u2019s podium; others saw it as irrefutable evidence of her basic decency and<\/em> her absolute appreciation of finally achieving success at a relatively late age. Whereas Sharapova had only been 17 when she won her first Major, Kerber was 28.<\/p>\n

By her own admission, Kerber initially struggled with her newfound status as a Slam Champion, slipping out of the French Open<\/strong>\u00a0in the first round.\u00a0Subsequently, however, she has consistently been the best player on the women\u2019s tour, reaching the final of both Wimbledon and the Olympics<\/strong> in Rio<\/strong>, before finally, triumphantly proving that Melbourne<\/strong> was no one-off by winning the US Open<\/strong> final against Karol\u00edna Pl\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1<\/strong> and thus securing the World No.1 ranking that had been Serena\u2019s exclusive domain for so long.<\/p>\n

And of course, as even this cursory review of Kerber\u2019s 2016 shows, she is not alone in making the breakthrough this year.\u00a0Garbi\u00f1e Muguruza<\/strong> followed her lead,\u00a0beating Serena in Paris<\/strong> to claim her first Major; Monica Puig<\/strong>\u00a0confirmed her obvious strength and skill by beating Kerber in the Olympic singles final; and Pl\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1\u2019s run to the final at Flushing Meadow<\/strong>, which included\u00a0victory over Serena in the semifinal, proved that she, too, is now a genuine Grand Slam contender.<\/p>\n

It all seems a long time ago since the US Open 2015<\/strong>, when Serena seemed on the brink of a genuine, calendar-year Grand Slam<\/strong>, until she unexpectedly (at the time, almost unbelievably) lost to Roberta Vinci<\/strong> in the semifinal. Since then, despite winning Wimbledon this year and despite still harboring entirely realistic hopes of eventually overtaking Margaret Court\u2019s<\/strong> all-time record of 24 singles Grand Slam titles<\/strong>, Serena has faced probably the finest array of opponents that she has ever faced.\u00a0 The fact is that, with Kerber and Muguruza demonstrating\u00a0the kind of power that seemed to belong solely to Serena for so long, the top of the women’s game\u00a0has not been so genuinely, authentically competitive for more than a decade. And if Petra Kvitova<\/strong> can finally overcome illness and injury and return to the Wimbledon-winning form of 2011 and 2014, there will be a trio of truly big hitters that can contest the game\u2019s major prizes for the next five years or so.<\/p>\n

It is in that context that Sharapova\u2019s antics this week, and the subsequent wall-to-wall coverage of them around the world, are so dispiriting.\u00a0If she can belatedly remember what it was that made the whole world love her so much in 2004 and<\/em> show some of the desperately needed humility that so many people have called for this week, she has a chance of recapturing her former place in people’s affections.\u00a0Until then, she and her many obsequious admirers and erstwhile defenders would do well to remember that she is no longer the supposed\u00a0\u201cqueen of tennis.\u201d\u00a0 That title now belongs to Kerber, and there are plenty of other younger and more powerful opponents also vying for it.<\/p>\n

Main Photo:<\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n