The Russian Invasion

Women's tennis is definitely seeing a change of guard. All that stands between an all russian final in the US Open is an aging Jennifer Capriati. If Capriati fails to stave off Dementieva's challenge, we are going to see a third succesive Russian champion in a grand slam. And a third different one. In fact, it will be the third succesive all-russian final. And the only common denominator is Dementieva (who lost in the french open final). You want more proof? 5 of the top ten are russians. Only two are americans. Even taking into account the injuries to the belgian duo and the americans, it's a sign of things to come. Most encouraging, in all of the statistics, is the number of russians in the top 20, 50 and 100. It looks like the production line that only the americans were capable of producing. And what's more? The american 'youngsters' (read Williams) are beginning to look like grannies when compared to the teenage brigade from Moscow. And the real youth in american women's tennis seems to be floundering in mediocrity. Is it a transition to look forward to? Not for the commentators (who have a hard time handling regular russian names like Kuznetsova). For everybody else? Bring it on!