Women's tennis needs stronger competition

Upsets are part of sports. Sometimes the underdogs win and take down the top dogs. It happens.

In the case of the 2016 Australian Open, it actually happened 18 times on the women's side in the first and second rounds of the tournament. That's a lot, considering there are 32 seeds and 18 of them were gone before you could let your full jealousy of the Australian summer weather take over. 

This was historic, too, marking the first time that many seeds fell in these first two rounds since tennis went to a 32-seed system in 2002.

Who's in, who's out

Among those upset: No. 8 seed Venus Williams (most definitely past her prime in what I'll call her "advanced tennis age" of 35), No. 24 seed Sloane Stephens, Aussie Sam Stosur, the 25th seed, No. 6 seed Petra Kvitova and No. 16 seed Caroline Wozniacki. The No. 2 seed Simona Halep took her early exit in the first round. 

Who's still alive? Well, Serena Williams for one thing. She's still out there trying to break records and earn yet another Grand Slam. She already has 21. Serena is a beast. She's the No. 1 seed - shocker - and just knows how to win. Even when she drops the second set and gets down in the third, she crawls her way back. She's talented, no question. 

Serena - in a class all her own?

But let's take another look at things, remembering these upsets in the Aussie Open. I'll pose this question: Is Serena really that good, or is it that she just hasn't had the competition over her career? Yes, I know Serena is a talented player. She is. But just roll with me for a minute here.

I bring this up because of what I see as a weak women's field. On the men's side the past few years, it's been a great era with Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. For the women, the real consistent name has been Williams. 

Venus is the older sister and perhaps the only true competition (not to mention storyline) for Serena over the course of her career. They've played each other 14 times in Grand Slams. But as I wrote earlier, it's pretty clear Venus is on her sunset tour. 

They all look promising

So who does that leave for great players on the women's side, ones that always show up in the quarterfinals of major slams? Um... anyone? There's Caroline Wozniacki, once ranked No. 1 in the world. The pressure must have gotten to her though, because she's faltered, hasn't won a major and has her fair share of early tournament exits. 

Stephens, 22, looked like a promising youngster for the Americans to root for when she came onto the tour a few years ago. She just hasn't reached that next step either. She was outsted in the first round this January, in straight sets.

I could keep listing names, but the stories aren't that different when you get down to it. Too often on the women's side of the draw, they're getting upset by unranked players early in tournaments. They're choking away opportunities in slams. That's the bottom line. 

You start to think a player might have the potential. The next thing you know, they've lost in the first round to some player you've never heard of and who will then promptly lose her next match.

Serena got lucky

So I guess what I'm saying is, Serena showed up in a fortunate time in the women's tennis era. She's had to show up and win her matches, of course, but the idea of facing the other top seeds in the quarters, semis and finals just doesn't happen very much. It's somebody new because the other top seeds were upset in earlier rounds.

It's kind of the opposite of Andy Roddick. Here's a guy that only has one Grand Slam title to his name, arguably because he arrived on the scene in the same era as legend Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Roddick was good but not good enough on that next level.

Going into a tournament, you know Serena has a strong shot to be there at the end. But who will she be there with? Nobody knows. Maybe this is all my bias as a non-Serena fan but whatever. (I don't deny her ability. It's her attitude I have a problem with, actually.)

Let's hope the women's field improves in the next few years.