I did this topic on the BBC about the men.I never got around to doing the women.I think its high time I did.

1 Justine Henin-Hardenne.She is considered to be the womens Federer in my eyes and many others.Hugely talented and a great backhand.But you are for life injured or got some family dilema or theres always something wrong.Really based on talent deserves to be number 1 but on consistency really shouldnt be there!

2 Maria Sharapova.The Anna Kournikova of today,but she actually can play tennis and has won titles most notibly US OPEN and Wimbledon.Ok,she deserves to here due to her consistence.She performs really well all the time!I hate her tennis but I cannot dispute results!

3 Amelie Mauresmo.This girl for the life of me I cant seem to get.I like her but she is always in another dimension.Her tennis go's off the boil and she loses more often than not to real jokers.Yes,she won the Wimbledon crown and is a deserved champion.But a real choker of note,like a Novotna!Not really top 3 in my opinion though!

4 Svetlana Kuznetsova.This Russian has the results and really proved her worth last year.Very Young and still improving.Deserves her ranking.

5 Kim Clijsters.This girl should actually be higher up.But also for life injured.Dont know if she has enough calcium or what.But its a pity.She should be number 2 if not number 1.Her last year on tour though.What a waste of talent!

6 Nadia Petrova.Considered to be the Davydenko of the women with her tomatoe head.You play everything possible and win win win.Your ranking climbs.Come to the big stage your mental will turns to tomatoe juice and you fail dismally.Not Grand Slam material.Shouldnt be in the top 10.

7 Martina Hingis.Well,she has done it all.Doesnt need to prove anything,maybe win the French Open.In the top 10 after a year back on tour,truely marvelous and very deserving of her ranking.Can still climb though!

8 Elena Dementieva.Well.well,well.With her serve its amazing that she is even in this group.But she does have solid groundstrokes to back up that weak serve.Like a blind person who cant see but their other sense are tremendously enhanced.She also fails to perform or take her chances on the big stage.Its a shame though.

9 Patty Schnyder.This girl has been ranked 9 for like ever.Heaven knows how she does it.But her staying ability is amazing.She wont last long though,the young girls are coming up!Patty aka Raggety Ann is a thing of the past.

10. Dinara Safina.This girl is on the up.Has a mental illness like her brother but can improve.She seems to be the Davenport of now.This girl deserves to be here and will climb!

Please guys.Lets here your views.There are lots of opinions out there and this is only my view.The top however way you look at it is a joke!I hope some order gets restored this year in Womens tennis!

Well bar one or two, disputable points I would say that going by your own analysis the top 10 is quite good at the moment :shrug:

Not its strongest ever, but certainly not a joke.

Its actually quite a shamble!We have a for life Injured number 1.A choking joke at number 3.A little too nice to win Mary Poppins at 5.A workhorse underachiever at number 6,a weak minded server at 8,a hang about at 9 who really shouldnt be there.

Thats 6 out of ten that are jokes.Now If Lindsay wasnt knocked up,Serena was consistent and Venus Injury free.That mix along with maybe Vaidisova,Jankovic and maybe Ivanovic we would have a stable much more justified Top 10!

You could say that about the top ten at nearly any point in history :shrug:

I don't see how Vaidisova, Jankovic and Ivanovic could be a more justified top ten seeing as they only have two Grand Slam semis between them!!! And most of the ranking points come from slams. Could it be that Justine is number one as she got to all slam finals last year, or Kim number 5 because she got to three grand slam semis (not bad for Mary Poppins), or Amelie as she won two slams. When Ivanovic or Vaidisova get those kinds of results then they will be more worthy top tenners.

Safina is probably better than Vaidisova and Ivanovic anyway overall, so the only weak link I really see in the current top ten is Patty. And none of them have bad injuries at the moment...I really don't think it's that bad :shrug:

I thought you could read Serenaw19!Justine deserves that ranking she had an awesome year last year.But as a number 1 to always have some excuse is pathetic.If Kim had a killer instict especially against Justine she could have won the French Open twice by now.But she wants to be friends(Mary Poppins).Didnt she also play Justine in the semis of Wimbers! :whistle:

Amelie WON Wimbledon.She didnt WIN Australia it was handed to her on a platter by the dare I say it For life injured and full of excuses number 1.

The 3 I mentioned are really up and comers.Vaidisova already has like what 6 or 7 titles to her name so clearly she is on her way into the top 10.Jankovic had great upsets last year with some solid results she clearly is on her way in and deserves to be there already!Ivanovic needs some fine tuning but to me resembles a Mary Pierce!

Now like I asked,if The williams girls were consistent and injury free and Davenport not preganant ,that alone makes 3 places already void in that top 10.

It doesn't mean three places are void, it means that they would supplant three of the current people there. Doesn't take away from that fact that the people in the current top ten deserve their places.

Also, Im not even a Justine fan; but she doesn't always have an excuse, she played loads of matches last year.

I don't totally disagree with what you're saying and I can certainly see your point but I think you are being a bit harsh in calling the current top ten a joke :)

Afterall, Gabriela Sabatini got as high as number three, and Jana Novotna got as high as number two, and they are perhaps the greatest chokers of all time. So like I said you could pick holes like that in any era of top ten, men or women.

It means that they are substitutes for the real people that belong there!!!

She actually does and what makes it worse is that she is never gracious in defeat.It always boils down to what she did and never how the opponent beat her!

It is harsh,but its sad that we lack quality.Look at the nosedive womens tennis has taken in the last year.I never followed mens tennis as intensly as I do now.I was always for the women.But due to this I cant stand to watch them unless its a Grand Slam!

You cant be serious.They were quality players nonetheless despite their choking and won many titles pushing Steffi Graf as well!

Ok this will be my last on this, which has become a bit tedious :rolleyes:

"The real Lindsay" is pregnant and real Venus is injured. If you would rather give the number 10 spot to a pregnant woman or someone who is too injured to hit a backhand over someone just coming into form like Dinara Safina then by all means.

Quality is a very subjective term, and it's only your opinion. I don't think we are necessarily lacking quality to a grievous degree which you seem to imply.

Well Kim is a quality player as well, and she has pushed Justine, Serena and Venus and beaten them before as well. So I don't see how you could call her a joke and choker and lacking in quality and then not judge Novotna and Sabatini by the same standards :shrug:

Im just sticking up for the top ten. Im not interested in getting into a prolonged debate over it. I think they're all marvelous players in their own right (except Patty :devil: roflmao ) and don't deserve to be called jokes :)

Bar injury and pregnancy they would be up there.You know this yet you come up with the above statement!!!!!!!

It is subjective!So you telling me that Petrova,who is a mental headcase at time with no slams to her name is of a high quality.Get real bud!

Did you actually read what I said bout Kim?Yet again you cant read.The entire top 10 isnt a joke,but we have to refer to it as that to be grammtically correct as its a collectorate!!!!!
I have very much stpulated who is good and who isnt.But we always talk top 10 not world number 9, or whatever!People emphasise over the top 10 in both mensa and womens tennis!

The Collectorate Top 10 made up of some good and bad players is a joke!

Then its quite simple.Done debate.State your views and leave it.Coz we will agree to disagree! ;)

The best of Serena Williams would probably beat the best of any other female player in the history of the game.

However, for her to reach the quarters of a Grand Slam with so little match practice, fitness and form is a bit fishy to me.

Then again, I look at previous top tens and I'm not sure it's that much worse than any other. The men's top 10 is more of a joke for sure.

Of course the top 10 will look a lot more meaningful when Mary Pierce returns to the game :bow: But Dark, how on earth can you compare Kournikova, the most beautiful tennis player in history, to the rather plain spotty looking Sharapova????

the current top 10 is solid and for the most part deserved. bar petrova and schnyder who i think lack big match pedigree (and the results to back it up) and safina, who is just too new to the top 10.

But they're not are they! Because thats not what they're doing at the moment so stop living in the past and enjoy what you've got! Serena, Venus and Lindsay are my all time faves and hope Serena will be number one again some day. But I also enjoy watching the current players.

The top ten is a collectorate but you you've named quite a few individual players who are good, and quite frankly have unjustly criticised others so to referring to the top ten as collectively bad is a logical contradiction as per your own statements!

The top 10 isnt top 10 to me without Venus and Serena in it :(

Thanks for backing me up :rolleyes:

No it doesn't feel like it does it....
But I was saying that it is still perfectly valid, in its own right :)

ooops :unsure:

ah well..............i'll get over it roflmao

:rolleyes: roflmao

Im very much not living in the past SW19.Serena isnt retired,neither has Venus and Jennifer wants to come back.You may enjoy the current top 10,but I dont,bar 1 or 2 players there.They have made the game boring boring and boring.All they do is whine for equal pay,make excuses or are for life injured.

There is no contradiction.One bad apple makes everyone look bad.We look at the women not the individual in most cases so the top 10 as a group is a joke!!!!!!!

Well if thats your opinion then fair enough. But not everyone is going to agree with you. I respect your opinion, but it would be nice if you were a little more respectful of the top ten; as they are professional athletes who have trained very hard to get where they are and have dedicated their lives to tennis. If they don't suit your personal preferences then that's ok, it doesn't make them a joke however; they provide many hours of entertainment for some of us :)

There are far better choices of words you could use to describe them rather than joke if you don't like them. To be honest I find it a little offensive.

Yet again you dont read.You claim that you respect my opinion but you find my description of them offensive!Is that not contradiction?

Yes,OPINION,it is and yes not everyone is going to agree with me as you are a prime example.sSome people may find this group very entertaining like you for example but then theres people like me who dont.My view of them is purely my own and I posted it here to get other views on what other people think and then to debate and justify my reasoning! Something you seem not to understand!

They have dedicated their lives to a sport and all in all that is their job and I respect them for it,but not everyone is good at their jobs and this is a fact.Be it in sport or the corporate financial world which is where I come from.Opinions are like assholes bud,everyone has one.So we are just going to have to agree to disagree!

;)

DN, I do agree that there are some suspect things about the women's top 10. Dementieva with that serve and losign two GS finals worries me greatly, Petrova is solid but a little one dimensional and I cant; see her ever being able to rise up and win a slam. Don't know much about Schnyder's play so can't comment. I'm nto a fan of Kim, her game bores me but she is good at it.

However, to rip into JHH and MoMo like that is way OTT. JHH is nto an excuse merchant, she's one of th efew players otu there with a complete all court game. She's a player not a baseline slugger, and is very mentally tough indeed. She has the best shot in the women's game and makes a welcome change from the clones. She really does work hard, and to achieve what she has done so far, given her lesser build and power, is remarkable. The woman has a long term illness for God's sake and she is no quitter - if she was she'd have packe dup when her virus knocked her for six causing her to miss tournies! I'm sure she doesnt; miss a slam lightly and whatever her family reasons are, that's her business and should be respected. I'd like to see how many men have the balls and guts she has! :bow: And of Amelie, the woman worked her ass iff to becoem the fittest player on tour,. She had to overcome all those mental demons to win a slam, and whatever you think of the AO result, the fact that she went to Wimby and took the crown in a decent field and against the player fo the year says that she deserved that. Again, she's a refreshing change from the clones, she can actually volley and use touch and variety. She's also had to remodel her serve because of injury which isn't easy.

I'm so glad that JHH and Amelie are at the top, becasue the game would be boring and one dimensional otherwise. They are two players for the real fans and connoseurs of fine tennis. :clap:

No it's not. I respect that you have an opinion, and your right to have one. However I personally find it offensive. There's nothing contradictory about that - some of us see more than one side of the argument you know.

Hey I did say that she is the womens Federer.The girl is brillian on clay and just on the whole.Her personality however makes her an ugly player that is hard to warm to.However I love her tennis!I just dont like her.Its that simple.

Momo,is another favourite of mine but she lacks that supreme stature of a grand slam champion.For heaven sakes she is a purple pin holder she should act like is on top of the world because quite frankly she is regadless of her ranking.She is elite stuff but still sucumbs to some demon or the other and that is what annoys me about her.Nonetheless I love her!

You are only seeing my opinion and taking offense at the argument rather than seeing the bigger picture!

Fair enough DN, but the way it came out it sounded like you hated the pair of them.

Not at all my friend!

;)

Justine is the women's version of Federer in that she plays superbly on any surface. However, I really like her whereas I don't enjoy Fed too much.

Kim Clijsters - she should be in the third spot right now. I peg her to win this tournament. She deserves more GSs and I think it's a travesty that she is retiring at this age. I mean, she can have all the babies she wants when she's 28 +. She'll regret retiring and in a couple of years she'll stage a comeback and will fail miserably. Oi!

lol good analysis!!! I agree about Kim coming back in the future roflmao

I also see her pulling a Hingis.She is just being stupid in retiring.Another joke for the top 10.I think she wants to come across as someone who isnt all mouth and no action.

What a waste of talent.Just hope she wins the Australian Open.Its her only shot!