Home » Sports » Women's Tennis » The Rise and Rise of Serena Williams

The Rise and Rise of Serena Williams

© Michael Cecilio

The Evert Cup
It is one of the few tournaments which hosts both men's and women's draws. It is arguably the second biggest tournament of the WTA tour and for that matter the ATP tour (the biggest being Lipton). It is a title which most of the top players vie for each year. Such heavyweights in tennis like Martina Hingis, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport and Mary Joe Fernandez have won the Indian Wells title, and the US$200,000 plus winner's cheque. What's more is that the tournament is going to be even bigger next year when it moves to a grander and higher scale venue, seating 16,000 in the main stadium. In comparison, the US Open venue at Flushing Meadows covers 42 acres of land - the future Evert Cup venue at Indian Wells will cover 45 acres of land!

This year, only two of the top 20 players were unentered in the tournament - #5 Venus Williams (who committed to doubles but eliminated the tournament from her singles schedule to complement sister Serena's entry) and #6 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. Needless to say, the field was strong, the depth of the field was immense, and thus, there were a number of upsets due to take place throughout the tournament.

The biggest upsets on the women's side included the upsets of the top three seeds - #1 Martina Hingis, #2 Lindsay Davenport and #3 Monica Seles. Surprisingly, NONE of them had made the semis! (how long has it been since not even one of them had made a semi final in a tournament they all played?). Martina Hingis was ousted by a girl on the comeback trail. Chanda Rubin, famous for her epic struggle at the 1996 Australian Open quarter finals when she ousted Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 16-14 in the third set (the longest women's match in history) completely dominated the world #1 player in the quarter finals. In the end, she had claimed the biggest scalp of her career in straight sets 6-3 7-6(2). What does this mean for Martina? She came into this year riding on so much confidence, winning the Chase Championships, and then going on to "three-peat" at the Australian Open and then the Pan Pacific Open the week later. It seems her fitness and motivation levels have increased since this time last year. However, she has exited her past two tournaments at the quarter final stages (also losing to Amelie Mauresmo in Paris). No doubt she would be dwelling on these matches and reassessing her game, but one would believe that these are just minor bumps on her way to bigger things this year. More often than not she looks relaxed and happy on court, unlike last year when she seemed to lack motivation from enjoying a stellar 1997. And this just might be the key to her achieving some great things this year.

The copyright of the article The Rise and Rise of Serena Williams in Women's Tennis is owned by . Permission to republish The Rise and Rise of Serena Williams in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.