Venus Williams' withdrawal from the US Open highlights the sad state of women's tennis.This is a sport desperate for dominant players and personalities.
With Venus gone there are very few players left on the women's side to identify with and pay attention to. The top of the rankings are littered with players who have yet to prove themselves on the sport's biggest stages.
Casual tennis fans that only tune in for the Grand Slams need someone they now. Someone they can expect to perform at a high level. And the sport just lost one of the few players that provided that.
Williams was diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome.
The illness is an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue and joint pain. This illness has led to Venus withdrawing from the 2011 US Open prior to second round match with Sabine Lisicki. ABC News released a statement from Venus that she released through the tournament. ABC News:
"I enjoyed playing my first match here, and wish I could continue but right now I am unable to. I am thankful I finally have a diagnosis and am now focused on getting better and returning to the court soon."
Williams and the sport have already been forced to deal with her absence. Although, until now, they had her for the Grand Slams.
Williams has been struggling with illness since Wimbledon. It has caused her to miss all tournaments between Wimbledon and the US Open. Until now, she didn't know what it was.
Now that Venus has discovered what has been ailing here she can begin a better course of treatment. However, there is no current cure for the syndrome.
It is hard to see Williams returning to dominant form while dealing with this syndrome. Williams is 31 years old, and she has already showed signs of slowing down.
She had already accumulated rust from the recent time off her health concerns have forced. Williams ranking is now expected to slide out of the top 100. The fact that she was forced to withdraw has to be devastating. Williams had this to say, as quoted by ABC News, following her first-round victory:
"It was just energy-sucking, and I just couldn't play pro tennis. It was disappointing, because I had huge plans for this summer, of course, to improve my ranking. To miss out on all those points was definitely devastating. Just to miss so much time off tour was just disheartening. But I'm just really excited to be back."
Hopefully treatments find her making rapid improvements in her health, and she can make it back to the court quickly. Whenever she does return, she'll face a long road back to the top, and it is likely she won't be able to provide the spark to tournaments that she does now.
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