Don’t Blame It on Rios

Marcelo Rios isn’t the Chilean version of Bobby Riggs or, for that matter, Richard Krajicek.

To clarify matters, Rios didn’t say women’s tennis is dull. He didn’t slide his foot into his mouth and disparage the physiques of the women, the way Krajicek did so artlessly at Wimbledon in 1992. And he never crept near the always-lively topic of equal prize money.

All Rios did was enliven an otherwise quiet first weekend at the Australian Open in January by sparking an intense debate about the depth of women’s tennis. His take was that the top women generally had little opposition in the first few rounds of the Grand Slams until the quarterfinals. Using the phrase “a joke” might not have bolstered his argument, however.

Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis shot back for the defense, Hingis offering to hit with Rios. Venus Williams responded with eloquence, staying above the messy fray. Stefan Koubek supported Rios, and Rios claimed “everyone” in the locker room agreed with him.

Behind the back-and-forth rhetoric, the question remains: Is Rios right? And if he is, so what?

An examination of the Grand Slams since the open era started in 1968 shows that the top two seeded women are rarely upset early, hardly a revelation. The top two seeded players have reached at least the fourth round at the U.S. Open, with one exception, since 1968. Still, upsets do happen. At least one of the top two players has lost before the final 16 six times each at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.

Hingis is responsible for two of those at Wimbledon, losing to 129th-ranked Jelena Dokic in the first round in 1999 and No. 83 Virginia Ruano Pascual in the first round in 2001. Coincidentally, Grand Slam officials started seeding 32 players at the 2001 Wimbledon to give the top players additional protection.

That occurred after second-seeded Venus Williams lost to 25th-ranked Barbara Schett in the first round at the French Open in May.

“Every round you have to take seriously,” Hingis said. “It’s changed a little bit. You have the 32 seeds now. You don’t play a seeded player until the third, fourth round. That makes it a little easier nowadays. I thought it was quite interesting to have the top 16 [seeded], and every now and then have a tough first round.”

But Hingis maintained she got no breaks in the draw, mentioning a first-round opponent at the Australian Open, 18-year-old Virginie Razzano of France, the former French Open junior champion.

“I had my junior there, Razzano, and she was the No. 1 junior in the world in the past. I didn’t think I had the easiest first round. I just came prepared and played well. Now you just always have to be ready.”

And she was, dispatching Razzano, 6-2, 6-2. In her next three rounds, Hingis beat Greta Arn, 6-1, 6-2; Barbara Rittner, 6-1, 6-0, and Amanda Coetzer, 6-1, 6-0. That’s what got Rios talking about depth.

“Of course he’s right,” said ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe, who is also the U.S. Davis Cup captain. “He’s totally right. It’s not right to say women’s tennis is not exciting. Women’s tennis is doing great. That doesn’t mean it’s not as exciting, it’s just different.”

Darren Cahill, now Andre Agassi’s coach, provided a clear-headed view of the situation in his newspaper column for the Melbourne Age. Cahill said he believed Rios was right.

“He is simply stating an opinion and one that can be well-argued, that compared with the men, most early-round [women’s] matches tend to be easier assignments,” Cahill wrote.

McEnroe gets weary of the inevitable comparisons.

“I think women’s tennis is getting deeper,” he said. “But it’s certainly not as deep as men’s tennis, that’s obvious. To me, I get sort of frustrated with constantly comparing men’s and women’s tennis. What other sport does that? To me, it’s one game.

“Men’s tennis has a lot more depth. But women’s tennis has a lot of excitement. Ten years ago, it was [Steffi] Graf or [Monica] Seles, and [before that] it was Martina [Navratilova] or Chrissie [Evert] that was basically going to win the majors. Now it’s at least four or five when you go into a Grand Slam, maybe even six or seven, if you throw the Belgian girls in there.”

Although Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati have dominated recently, having won the last seven majors, there has been a difference at the very top. In the last five months, four players have been ranked No. 1--Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Capriati and Williams.

Five of the top 10 players, and two of the top three in the world, are missing from the Pacific Life Open, which starts today with main-draw action at Indian Wells. In the old days, that would have been a crippling blow. But the event still has marquee players in Hingis, Seles, 2001 French Open finalist Kim Clijsters of Belgium and 2001 Wimbledon finalist Justine Henin, also of Belgium.

An outside observer contends that safe passage of the stars into the later rounds is a good thing. Bob Williams, president of Burns Sports, which matches athletes with companies for endorsements, believes the lack of great depth gives women’s tennis an edge over men’s tennis and, for that matter, golf.

“There [are] five or six players that can win at any time,” he said. “I think it’s improved dramatically. There’s some great rivalries building--Martina and Jennifer Capriati the last two years in the Australian, Venus vs. Jennifer, and Jennifer vs. Serena. There are a lot of permutations that are good for the sport.

“In particular, that’s why I think it’s much more popular than the men’s game right now.”

For Williams, a new winner each week is a negative.

“Golf is a great example of that,” he said. “They normally have six to 12 first-time winners on the PGA Tour. You’re rarely seeing anyone outside of Tiger Woods win more than one tournament a year.”

The depth issue cut the other way for the men at the Australian Open. The players in the quarterfinals were completely different from those in the final eight last year. Lleyton Hewitt and Gustavo Kuerten, the top two seeded players, lost in the first round and No. 4 Yevgeny Kafelnikov lost to 234th-ranked Alex Kim in the first round.

“In some sense, men’s tennis is actually helped and, at the same time, hurt by how much depth there is,” McEnroe said. “What I always tell people, when you are talking about a Grand Slam, the first week, you get to see the best matches in men’s tennis. You are guaranteed that you’re going to see great matches. In the women’s game, you’re not guaranteed. You’re maybe going to see a couple of good matches in the opening week. But people still want to see Venus Williams go out and win, 6-1, 6-1.”

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Pacific Life Open

Where: Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

When: Women’s main-draw action, starting today. (Men’s main draw begins Monday.)

Prize money: $2.1 million (total purse). Winner receives $332,000.

Surface: Hard court.

Draw: 96 players.

Last year’s final: Serena Williams def. Kim Clijsters, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Top players entered: Clijsters, Martina Hingis, Justine Henin, Monica Seles, Jelena Dokic, Meghann Shaughnessy, Silvia Farina Elia, Elena Dementieva.

Today’s featured matches: (starting at 10 a.m.) Marissa Irvin vs. Virginia Ruano Pascual, Spain; Lilia Osterloh vs. Anna Kournikova, Russia; Maria Sharapova, Russia vs. Brie Rippner; Maja Matevzic, Slovenia vs. Mirjana Lucic, Croatia

On the Net: www.champions-cup.com

Tickets: (800) 999-1585