Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

Just when you thought it was safe to say nice things about the WTA...

...Sydney happens.

Honestly. It's a new year, new decade, and we've just seen one of the greatest women's matches of the latest five years. You'd think that this might be enough to restore some semblance of order to the permanent misrule that is women's tennis. But no, in the first couple of days of Sydney we've lost three of the eight seeds and come so close to losing another one it's just not funny.

Sigh, WTA. No wonder players like Clijsters and Henin can come back and pummel you into submission. If JuJu had played this tournament, I would have backed her for sure.

We lost Vera Zvonareva to injury - seriously, is this girl ever going to sort her injury woes out? That makes it sound like it's her fault, which it's obviously not, but she retires hurt so often it makes one think she's coming on court hurt to begin with. The mummy bandages don't exactly belie that assumption either. Maybe she needs to sit out for a while until she's completely healed - though who knows how long that could be?

Then Jelena Jankovic lost to Agnes Szavay, a qualifier. I used to think that Szavay would be a real big thing one day. I've since changed my mind, and this match doesn't really alter that at all. Szavay played some great stuff, sure, but JJ really lost it. I'd like to blame this one on first-match-of-the-season yips, but it's too much of the same to do so. Pull yourself together, JJ.

And then Caroline Wozniacki lost a match she never should have lost to Li Na. I know Li Na is one of the girls who pulls upsets, like, every four seconds, but Wozniacki was all over her in the first set. And then... watch that tumbleweed go past. Caro needs to get herself some grit, stat. That's all I'm saying about that.

Victoria Azarenka went through, but she came OH SO VERY CLOSE to going out to Sabine Lisicki. As I'm pretty sure Lisicki will be top ten soon (if she can keep her error count down - that's her Achilles heel) this isn't quite so bad, but still... oh, and Nadia Petrova lost to Kimiko Date Krumm, making it two first round exits in two weeks (even if the first one was to JuJu). Come on, WTA. Pull yourself together.

We have Dinara Safina and Serena Williams in action today. Let's just say I won't hold my breath.