This Past Week Watching The Williams Sisters Loose So Horribly In France At The 2008 Roland Garros Grand Slam Was Disheartening. In Fact It Was Downright Bad News As Far As Im Concerned. Because In My Mind Its Over For Them. The Sisters Are Done. They May Play As Professional Single Players For The Next 2 Years, But After That I Foresee Them Leaving The Game. And They Got Knocked Out Early! The Slam Started And I Felt Like I Hadnt Even Had A Chance To Get Settled In. Usually I Catch As Much Of The First Week As I Can, But Ok, I Might Miss A Game Or Two With No Harm Done. But This Year If You Werent On Top Of It, You Would Have Missed Their Self-defeating Performances Altogether.Most People Believe That Venus And Serena Are Too Distracted By All Their Varied Interests, Hobbies, Ventures, And General Lack Of Attention To Tennis. But My Strong Belief Is That The Williams Have Lost Their Momentum Due To A Dramatic Shift In Family Life. Their Sister, Yetunde, Was Killed On The Streets Of Compton. And She Wasnt A Distant Sibling; She Was Older And Worked As Their Assistant. She Was Ever Present At Games And Function. Their Parents Richard And Oracene Also Split And Both Began Acting As Coach, Although Lets Be Honest Richard Was The Coach And Once They Began Splitting Up Duties The Tennis Stars Began To Be Erratic. So Ive Got To Suggest; With A Family In Disarray Like That Is It So Remarkable To Imagine Theyve Lost Their Core, Their Momentum, And Their Focus? All The Fashion, Design And Experiments With Hollywood Are Symptoms Of 2 Young Women Who Arent As Focused As They Used To Be Because The Entire Family Isnt As Focused As It Used To Be. Game Over.But Theyre Not Alone, Women Tennis Players Have Been Retiring For The Last Few Years At A Surprising Rate. All At The Top Of Their Game. Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport And Most Recently Justine Henin. And Every Time The Tennis World Expresses Great Shock And Disbelief. At Some Point People Have To Stop Being Shocked. This Is How It Goes. New Players Come On The Scene And Freak Everybody Out, Players Get Injured, And Women Players Start Feeling The Biological Clock And Start Thinking About Having A Family. For Women There Seems To Be A 10 Year Run, From Say 15-16 Years Old To Maybe 25-26 Years Old. For The First Couple Of Years Theyre The Youngest Ever, Then They Have Maybe 5 Good Years, Then For The Last Couple Of Years Theyre In And Out Of Games With Injuries. Followed By A Sudden Retirement. Its Happening A Lot. The Williams Initially Scared A Lot Of Players Out Of The Game And Now The Women From Eastern Europe Have Cleared The Rest Of The Field. And I Believe Theyre About To Push The Williams Out Too.
