U.S. Open looks ripe for a Williams takeover

NEW YORK -- As the 7-train screeches into the Shea Stadium/National Tennis Center stop, the year's last tennis Grand Slam says hello with quite the goofy billboard shouting from out the right-side window.

It's Maria Sharapova pitching cameras, and while sticklers and other malcontents might point out that a torn rotator cuff means Sharapova won't actually, you know, play this U.S. Open, maybe the sign actually sort of works.

Ever since May, four months after Sharapova had won the Australian Open and some had howled at the moon about a possible Sharapova Slam, the women's game has become a strange brew of hodgepodge and mishmash.

If its Grand Slam year ends on a U.S. Open lacking both its defending champion and its billboard girl, well, that's probably apt.

The 2007 French and U.S. champion Justine Henin, perched at No. 1, retired stunningly in May. Sharapova entered the French Open as No. 1 but lost in the fourth round, whereupon Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic or Svetlana Kuznetsova could've snared the spot, which Ivanovic did.

Ivanovic came to Wimbledon and lost in the third round, whereupon Sharapova, Jankovic or Kuznetsova could've overtaken her, but none could. Jankovic finally did overtake her in early August, but Ivanovic since has overtaken Jankovic. Neither No. 1 Ivanovic nor No. 2 Jankovic nor No. 3 Serena Williams nor No. 4 Kuznetsova nor No. 5 Sharapova has won a tournament since the French.

If you think all of this hints it should be time for You Know Who and her younger sister You Know Who, you wouldn't be a nut case.

"I'm all about results and wish everyone the best of luck," Venus Williams, ranked No. 8, said Saturday, "but I'm really down with me winning this tournament, so . . . "

She didn't finish the sentence because the room busted up laughing, but her outlook achieved plausibility. It seems surely inaccurate -- but it's not -- that not one Williams has graced the last five U.S. Open women's singles finals.

Ever since Serena Williams, then 20, beat Venus Williams, then 22, in the 2002 final to portend Williams finals from there to eternity, Venus has reached one quarterfinal and one semifinal while having to withdraw twice, and Serena has reached two quarterfinals while having to withdraw once. Venus beat Serena in the fourth round in 2005, Henin beat both in 2007, both open 2008 Tuesday, and a disagreeable draw means they would meet in a quarterfinal.