US OPEN 2007: Women's Top 10 REVIEW

1 J. HENIN. Prediction: Semi-Finalist. Result: Champion. Say what you want about the World #1, she came to New York ready and prepared to play. She could not have enjoyed going 1 for 4 in Slam finals in 2006 an in 2007 she improved that to 2 out of 2 (Henin ost to M. Bartoli at Wimbledon in what I think must be called the upset of the decade and she did not
play the 2007 Australian Openfor personal reasons). Now if she can only
win majors without puppetmaster coach Carlos Rodriguez in the
stands she might actually get some respect. Grudgingly. Grade: A-.

2 M. SHARAPOVA. Prediction: Finalist. Result: 3rd Round, lost to Agnieska Radwanska (30) POL. The defending champion had a patty cake draw designed to get her to the final where she could have a chance to repeat her made-for-TV ascension to the pinnacle of women's tennis over a battered and bruised player left standing from the top half of the draw. Instead, fearless Polish teen took her out despite being down a break in the third set and won the last 6 games of the match by getting in Sharapova's head by relentlessly and impolitely. GRADE: B-.

3 J. JANKOVIC. Prediction: Quarterfinalist or Champion. Result: Quarterfinalist, lost to V. Williams. Finally MadProfessah gets one right. The quarterfinal showdown with V. Williams was probably the highest quality match on the women's side, with the Pe'er-Vaidisova slugfest in the third round a close second. I truly feel that Jankovic is thisclose to winning a major. She should take a lot of time off and get down to Australia a few weeks early to maximize her chances of doing well in the slams in 2008. GRADE: B+.

4 S. KUZNETSOVA. Prediction: Semi-finalist. Result: Finalist. Kuznetsova exceeded her seeding by taking advantage of incredibly nervous playing by Chakvetadze in the semifinals who herself benefitted from Sharapova's nervous collapse in the 3rd Round, making the bottom half of the draw as wide open as the Holland Tunnel. Sadly, although the Russian was able to battle
through her nerves to grab the win Chakvetadze refused to keep in her grasp after being up a break in the third set, Svetlana demonstrated her own lack of mental fortitude with her sub-par performance in the championship match against Henin. But she can seek solace in the rise of her ranking to #2 in the World. Grade: A-.

5 A. IVANOVIC. Result: Quarterfinalist or Semifinalist. Result: 4th Round, lost to Venus Williams. I underestimated the performances of both Williams players in this tournament, probably overly influenced by the last few years of desultory results in New
York. However, this 4th round match was the sharpest Venus looked in the fortnight. Ivanovic had been overperforming her seeding in the Slams for 2007 and I expected her to do so at the US Open as well. Sadly, the draw did not comply. If she had played this tennis against Henin, she would have won her second major of 2007 and have a claim to be the #1 player, instead of the Belgian. Grade: B.

6 A. CHAKVETADZE. Prediction: Quarterfinalist. Result: Semifinalist, lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova (3) RUS. Although I'm sure that Anna is not hapy right now with this result, as she sits at home thinking about it she should be satisfied with her first major semifinal
and the knowledge that if she had been a bit more experienced (as she will be
next time) she could have been the Russian player to be at the other end of a
whipping by the World #1. The paycheck should assuage the pain. Grade: A-.

7 A. MAURESMO. Did Not Play.

8 N. PETROVA. Prediction: Fourth Round or Quarterfinalist. Result: 3rd Round, lost to Agnes Szavay HUN. The most mentally fragile of the Russians has the game to go far in a slam but consistently underperforms her seeding at the majors. She's not getting any
younger, so I hope she realizes soon that if she wants her best results to be ahead of her instead of behind her she needs to go through a serious gut check. Grade: C-.

9 S. WILLIAMS. Prediction: Early Round Loss. Quarterfinalist, lost to Justine Henin (1) BEL. I was vociferous that I didn't think Serena should be playing this tournament.
For your "average" Top 10 players, 3 quarterfinals and a major championship would be a yearly Grand Slam performance proud to bring home to Momma. But as we all know, Serena is not your "average" Top 10 player. I'm hoping that 3 losses in a row to Justine will get Serena incredible motivation to train hard and prepare to reverse these results in 2008. That would make Momma Oracene really proud. Grade: INCOMPLETE.

10 D. HANTUCHOVA. Prediction: Quarterfinalist. Result: First Round, lost to Julia Valukeno. A surprisingly bad result for the hard-hitting Slovak player who has returned to
the Top 10 after winning her second WTA title at Indian Wells earlier in the year. Grade: D.

Turns out that of the 9 members of the Top 10 who played in the 2007 U.S. Open, exactly 4 performed better than Mad Professah predicted before the start of the tournament and 4 performed worse, with only one performing exactly as I predicted.