Shake It Up, Shake It Down

There can be no doubt about it - the WTA is in crisis. And I'm not talking about the administrative side, though the whole Larry King debacle has been interesting in and of itself. No, no, the WTA is in crisis because there hardly seems to be a WTA any more.

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We lost Dementieva today, another member of what is supposed to be the upper echelon of the WTA. She joins Safina, Zvonareva, Ivanovic, Jankovic and a whole host of others who have crashed out of this tournament. Zvonareva, who won Indian Wells last week, perhaps has a vague sort of excuse with too much match play, but even that is hazy at best. There are very few top ten players left now in the tournament - and given that one of those few is the constantly sketchy Svetlana Kuznetsova, well...

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So what happens now? The Williams sisters are still in, solid as a rock. And the two teen queens, Wozniacki and Azarenka, have lined up ominously behind them. If anyone can exploit the crisis, it should be these two - and maybe Dominika Cibulkova as well. Because despite the fact that the women at the top (Williamses aside) are playing terribly, they're still largely maintaining their position at the top, which pretty much means that the women under them are playing worse. Though the WTA scoring system has always been, ahem, interesting.

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I want to see a reshuffle at the top. The girls there are, frankly, not good enough. There's a lot of talent in the WTA, but I'm not seeing much delivery. So step up to the plate, young up and comers, veterans, those bridesmaids to the brides of the top spots. Shake it up, shake it down. There is no way that women playing the way that the top women are should be at the top. Maybe, if we have a shakeup-shakedown, then there'll be some quality motivation.

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Today's Results

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Sony Ericsson Open (Miami)

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Men's Draw

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Rafael Nadal def. Frederico Gil, 7-5 6-3

Juan Martin del Potro def. Janko Tipsarevic, 6-4 6-1

Viktor Troicki def. Bjorn Phau, 6-4 6-3

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Women's Draw

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Caroline Wozniacki def. Elena Dementieva, 7-5 6-4

Venus Williams def. Agnieszka Radwanska, 4-6 6-1 6-4

Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Alisa Kleybanova, 6-2 6-1

Victoria Azarenka def. Agnes Szavay, 6-2 6-4

Samantha Stosur def. Amélie Mauresmo, 6-4 6-4