Women's professional tennis "is at a historic low point," with not even a single star who plays regularly, says Megan Greenwell in GOOD. Longtime standout Venus Williams — recently diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome — is floundering, and while her sister Serena is favored to win this year's U.S. Open, she's "seeded 28th because she doesn't play enough to be ranked any higher." That no other player threatens Williams is bad news for women's tennis, which like every other sport needs star talent to stay relevant. And women athletes can't afford to let tennis go the way of women's golf. Here's an excerpt:
With Serena about to celebrate her 30th birthday and no obvious next-generation female tennis stars on the horizon, the dry spell threatens to continue for years. And that poses a danger not just to women's tennis, but to women's sports as a whole.
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