| Sunday, 29 June 2008 Written by Adam Lincoln For the second Grand Slam in a row, four players began these Championships with a shot at the world number one ranking: Ana Ivanovic, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova. If Sharapova and Ivanovic have now been removed from that scenario, the others would do well to seize the day while they can. Underscoring the unusually close rankings race at the very top, a new generation of impatient contenders is champing at the bit – and several of them are very much alive and kicking as Wimbledon enters its second week. It would be ridiculous to suggest that, three weeks after she was crowned No.1, Ivanovic is a has-been at the age of 20. But with top-flight careers now ending in their mid-20s – recently-retired Justine Henin and her fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters are the most potent examples – she has probably timed her ascent perfectly: not quite mid-career, but a pro since 2003. However with so much competition, it’s hard to imagine her, or anyone for that matter, staying there for as long as a Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert or Steffi Graf. Indeed, as even those greats know, time stands still for no player, and much of the incumbent top 10 is, in tennis’s cruel terms, a shade autumnal. It is easy to forget that Sharapova is still only 21, but the clock is ticking for 23-year-old Jankovic, the highest remaining seed here, who may never have a better chance of a breakthrough. It is now four years since Kuznetsova, who turned 23 on Friday, tasted Grand Slam glory at the US Open, and she is surely keen to repeat that feat sometime soon. Fifth-ranked Elena Dementieva, runner-up to Kuznetsova at that US Open and to Anastasia Myskina at Roland Garros the same year, is 26. And while not so long ago it seemed the Williams sisters would dominate the women’s game forever, Venus turned 28 last week and Serena will be 27 in September. Meantime, seven teenagers were among the 32 seeds at the Championships this year, equalling a standard set twice previously, at the US Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2007. Of course, teen stars are nothing new: Jennifer Capriati remains the youngest-ever women’s seed at Wimbledon (14 years 89 days, in 1990). The real difference is the sheer number of fast-rising and relatively “complete” players emerging from the juniors. All aboard the top 10 express Most immediately destined for the top 10 is 19-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska, who has improved from 26th to 11th in the rankings this year. Winner of the Tier II event at Eastbourne in the week before Wimbledon, her biggest title to date, the young Pole with the circumspect game passed the million dollar mark in prize money after winning on clay at Istanbul in May. Perhaps the most accurate gauge of her season – and indeed any player’s – is her eighth place in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships, which only takes results since January into account. Radwanksa’s rise has been steady and gradual compared to that of Agnes Szavay, the hard-hitting 15th seed from Hungary. By the end of 2007 the 19-year-old was ranked 20th in the world after rising 187 places during the season courtesy of two Tour titles, three top 10 wins and her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the US Open – the first time she had even played in the main draw there. Building a fearsome reputation, too, is Victoria Azarenka, an 18-year-old who goes after every ball with Seles-esque relish. The Belarusian has developed a habit of only losing to higher-ranked or very accomplished players, such as Nadia Petrova, who had too much experience in their third round match at Wimbledon on Saturday. Now ranked 16th, Azarenka rose 62 places last season and entered the top 20 in singles after reaching the semi-finals at Berlin in May. It’s worth noting she is also taking the doubles game seriously – she is ranked ninth, and won the 2008 French Open mixed title with Bob Bryan. It is also notable that Azarenka was one of Szavay’s main rivals in the juniors, as the honour rolls of junior Grand Slams are increasingly reliable as indicators of star potential. Azarenka beat Szavay to win the 2005 Australian girls’ title, and later bagged the US juniors, while Szavay won the French event that year. Likewise, Radwanska won junior Wimbledon in 2005 and Roland Garros in 2006, while France’s Alize Cornet, now 18 and ranked 17th, followed up her 2007 girl’s win at Roland Garros by reaching the third round on the main event this year. Cornet is 11th in the race to the end of year championships, having started the year ranked 55th, although she suffered a disappointing first round loss at Wimbledon. Another first round casualty, though no less promising for it, is 31st-ranked Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia. This year the 19-year-old pocket dynamo has registered wins over the likes of Venus Williams, Anna Chavetadze and Amelie Mauresmo, and become a key player in her country’s Federation Cup squad in the absence of Daniela Hantuchova. Tennis powers seek new heroes Since the retirement of Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario and Conchita Martinez, Spain has been searching for its next star. The tennis power appears to have found her in Carla Suarez Navarro, a 19-year-old who was ranked 170th at the start of the season but who has risen to 56th, due in no small way to her quarter-final run at Roland Garros this year. Similarly Germany, still trying to regroup after the Graf era, seems to have its best prospect in years in 18-year-old Sabine Lisicki, who notched a win over Dinara Safina at her maiden Grand Slam, the Australian Open, then shocked Lindsay Davenport in Fed Cup competition. Timea Bacsinszky might not be the next Martina Hingis, but Switzerland has high hopes for the 19-year-old, what with the stalwart Patty Schynder turning 30 in December. Among less vaunted tennis nations, Denmark has 30th-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, 18 next month, who showed her talent in taking Jankovic to three sets in the third round at SW19 on Saturday. Austria has Tamira Paszek, Belgium has Yanina Wickmayer and New Zealand has Marina Erakovic, who is now making moves at the age of 20. Superpower Russia is spoiled for choice, of course, but among the younger prospects it’s hard to ignore Anastasia Pavyluchenkova. She was junior world champion in 2006 and qualified for Wimbledon this year at just 16, falling to Radwanska in the third round. But the path to the top is not always smooth. Just ask Nicole Vaidisova. Still only 19, the Czech made headlines when she stormed to the semi-finals at Roland Garros in 2006 at the age of 17. She was in the top 10 by the end of that year, and in 2007 made the semis at the Australian Open and quarters at the French Open and Wimbledon. But a crisis of confidence and injury contributed to a brutal six-match losing streak in the spring, and she has dropped from 12th to 22nd in the rankings this year. Better days appear to be ahead though, as she is safely through to the last 16 at the Championships. Also through to the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time is 18-year-old Alisa Kleybanova, a junior prodigy now 42nd in the world. Kleybanova produced an astonishing display of power and precision to upset 10th seed Hantuchova in the second round last week, then despatched Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama to set up a fourth-round clash with Venus Williams. She is joined in the last 16 by Alla Kudryavtseva, the world No.154. The 20-year-old has not enjoyed quite the ride of some of her peers, but her win over Sharapova this week is certainly emblematic of a change in women’s tennis. “We can feel it for a while now,” said former world No.1 Amelie Mauresmo of the increasing depth and variety in the game, following her loss to old rival Serena Williams on Friday. “All the players are capable of beating the top players. It’s something that maybe in the past we wouldn’t have seen much, but over the past two or three years it’s started to be this way. “It’s the training,” the Frenchwoman, living proof that a player’s career doesn’t have to peak in her early twenties, added. “The girls are preparing better and better, and finding new things to work on. I guess we’re following the development in men’s tennis.”
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