Mr. Ed's Champs & Chumps (August 4, 2001)
by Ed Zafian



This week's column is all about the WTA. In "Champs," all of a sudden there is a pretty tight race among the top-ranked women. As Martina Hingis closes in on her 200th week as the top ranked player, the triad of power players behind her may finally have her number -- that number being #1. Then we turn our attention to what should be one of the best tennis sites out there. Instead we have, with all apologies to Brit-import game show host Anne Robinson, a sometimes "miserable, pathetic, embarrassing" addition to the WWW.

Champs
An Eye On #1

It is an exciting time for those who like to watch the tennis rankings. No, not the ATP who continue their schizophrenic battle between the "Entry System" and "Race" rankings (Who's number #1? Agassi, Kuerten, Agassi, Kuerten). The real buzz is the WTA rankings.

While Martina Hingis is still safely ensconced (for now) as the WTA's #1, there is a heated battle right behind her between Jennifer Capriati, Venus Williams, and Lindsay Davenport. All three have a decent chance to topple Hingis by year's end. This past week only about 100 points separated the three players. Capriati moved up to the #2 spot for the first time in her career replacing Williams while Davenport's loss to Clijsters in the final kept her in the #4 slot by a slim 5 points.

Going into the US Open, Capriati is virtually assured to remain in the #2 position. Including Flushing Meadows, Capriati has a mere 163 computer points to defend from last year. This is a sharp contrast from the others: Davenport (850 points), Hingis (1082 points), and Williams (1715 points). After the US Open, the computer point "tide" favors Williams. Williams made only one tournament appearance worth 205 points (the Olympics did not count towards the rankings). While Capriati has more points to defend after the Open, she is still in a good mathematical position with 574 points to defend. Davenport and Hingis go into heavy defense mode with 1007 and 1829 points respectively in the last two months of the season.

So what does this all mean? Well, if this Mr. Ed were putting down a bet, Capriati would appear to be a "no- brainer" as the new #1 player. Venus Williams has a chance if she is able to defend her US Open title and compete in the final stages of the season. But keep in mind that this year the WTA season ends approximately two weeks ahead of last year. The rolling 52-week points calendar (and those valuable year- end championship points) may not allow a new #1 to be officially crowned until after the last ball has been struck for 2001.


Chumps
You ARE the Weakest Tennis Link!

Recently the WTA Tour unveiled their official website (www.wtatour.com). After spending most of this year "under construction," one can not help but wonder what took so long. Likewise, this Mr. Ed found himself wondering who approved this garish display. A lively color of blue (I now dub it "Sanex Electric Blue" -- get on it Crayola!) dominates the site as do many product/ad placements. Dozens of mini-ads and boxed links to other sections of the site dot the page while neon-green/yellow also has a heavy presence on the site. Okay, I realize it is supposed to be the color of tennis balls - but my computer screen is not a small moving object that I am trying to hit. It was also someone's bright (did someone say bright?!) idea, to have the top WTA Tour players on top of the page washed out in that same green/yellow hue. If you have not seen it, imagine someone coloring in the player's faces with a highlighter marker. If I did not know better I might have thought Martians had started their own tennis tour. Or are the top-ranked players (Martina Hingis in particular) auditioning to play a "oompah-loompahs" in a remake of Willy Wonka? Basically, the home page should be arrested for visual assault and battery.

Another questionable move is using that neon green/yellow as the color for links (on the player page or printable rankings page for instance). This may have been fine if they were not primarily used on pages with white backgrounds. The text is nearly impossibly to read and only one step away from "invisible" ink. Did anyone at the WTA or the web design company really think this looked good? There are dozens of "amateur" (i.e., those who do not actually get paid for web page design) sites devoted to WTA tennis that are far more appealing than this new site. Dare I suggest that they only look at the ATP Tour (www.atptennis.com) to see an example of a sleek, uncluttered, and professional tennis website.

While knocking the new visuals, kudos to the increased attention to the site (scores, news, and rankings seem to be updated in a more timely manner than ever before) and the retention of the "Message Board" area, that remains one of the best (and most active, entertaining, and heated ) places for frenzied fans of the WTA Tour to meet and sound off. With the WTA Tour more popular than ever, one would hope they would take a clue from their title sponsor Sanex and give the site the "makeover" it truly deserves.


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