Strong is Beautiful?

On Thursday, the WTA unveiled its new marketing campaign ‘Strong is Beautiful’ to an overwhelmingly positive response. Featuring 38 current and rising stars of the game, the campaign will be unveiled on TV, print and digital ads, and social media applications across 80 countries over the next two years. But while a fantastic publicity campaign can help generate buzz, it’s the product itself that needs to be strong enough to sustain itself.For some time now, women’s tennis has been in a state of flux, repeatedly let down by the absence of and injury to its biggest stars. Check this fact – 9 of the last 11 Grand Slams have been won by either Kim Clijsters or the Williams sisters.[caption id="attachment_9542" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="While Serena Williams (R) has already withdrawn from the French Open, Venus too might give it a miss. Jason Kempin/Getty Images"][/caption]Clijsters will hang up her racket after the London Olympics in 2012 to have another baby while Venus, who turns 31 in June, and Serena, who turns 30 three months later, are unlikely to be around much longer. And those dreaming of the third coming of Justine Henin are doing just that – dreaming!! How the game sustains itself without its biggest superstars might be evidenced in Paris when the French Open gets underway in just over a week.Serena has already withdrawn from Paris, having not played since Wimbledon 2010, with no immediate return in sight (sources say she is targeting a Wimbledon return but given her recent history of health issues and long-standing history of withdrawals, it would surprise no one if that did not happen).Venus and Kim are still officially entered in the French. But Oracene, matriarch of the Williams household, has said that is almost certain that Venus will pull out (Venus’ last four events have been the four Slams and she has not played since withdrawing from the Australian Open due to injury).Meanwhile, Clijsters might recover from a freak injury at a cousin’s wedding just in time for Paris but that means making the trip to Roland Garros without any clay-court matches under her belt. With injuries beginning to creep back into the Belgian’s life, a smarter choice might be to skip Paris altogether and focus on Wimbledon and US Open, where she and we like her chances much more.Coinciding with the debut of the new campaign, came news that another former world no. 1 Dinara Safina is taking an indefinite break from the game to recover from chronic back injuries, dealing another low-blow to the WTA. While nowhere close to the Belgians or Americans in terms of star appeal or winning history, Safina has been followed by many over the past three years.She went from Marat’s little sister to world-beater - rising to world no. 1 in 2009 by reaching three Grand Slam finals - then underwent a trial by the media to justify her No. 1 ranking in the absence of any Grand Slam hardware. The pressures and a serious back injury caused her ranking to plummet out of the top 100.She lost 6 matches in a row between September 2010 and January 2011, and then began a mini-revival, winning 10 of her last 15 matches and rising back to 68 in the rankings, before her back injury flared up again. “I don’t know how long the break will be,” she said. “I don’t want to torture myself and my body any longer. I want to take as much time to recover, so I don’t have any regrets at the end of my career.”[caption id="attachment_9545" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Maria Sharapova is back in the top-10 in the world rankings, but she's hardly the No. 1 contender for the year's second Grand Slam. Andrea Comas/Reuters"][/caption]Safina’s absence will mean one less recognizable name in the women’s draw to root for. Other superstars are having an equally tough time getting back to the winners circle. Maria Sharapova, the world’s most famous female athlete, is back in the top 10 but her serving yips means she is unlikely to challenge for the Suzanne Lenglen trophy just yet; and Ana Ivanovic is back in the top 20 rankings, after dropping to no. 65 last year, but her confidence seems to be as short-lived as her coaching arrangements. And even in this flux, two-time Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova is unable to win enough matches to rank in the top 10, currently on a three-match losing streak.The weight now falls on a group of fresh faces to carry the highest profile women’s sports franchise in the world over the next few years. Leading the pack is Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, already world no. 1 at the age of 20 and a Grand Slam win away from superstar status.Victoria Azarenka, ranked no. 4 in the world but top of the grunting decibel charts, and Petra Kvitova, the cleanest ball striker and world no. 10, are two other young guns with the game to keep the Dane company in the years ahead. And Julia ‘Gorgeous’ Goerges and Andrea Petkovic have fans, not just Germans, sitting up and taking notice too.The men’s game is riding high these days, thanks to the record-breaking efforts of Federer, Nadal and, now, Djokovic. The women, long accustomed to playing second fiddle to the men, have only recently been accorded equal prize money at all Slams. Wozniacki and the girls now need to be Strong and Beautiful to justify that parity!!