Mauresmo, Dementieva Head Weakened Zurich Field After Serena, Davenport Withdrawals

Posted on October 18, 2004

The WTA stop in Zurich this week is a "Tier I" event, the top level of play on the WTA calendar, but that doesn't seem to faze Top 10 players Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Serena Williams, world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport, and Jennifer Capriati, who have chosen to sit this week out.

While no immediate information was available on the late Sunday pulls by Serena and Davenport, Serena, who was playing the rare same non-slam event as sister Venus, is likely still experiencing problems with her surgically-repaired knee.

Add to that the additional injury no-shows of Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters of the Top 10 (as of last week) on the WTA Rankings, and Zurich resembles a weakened Tier II event. Much like the ATP, whose "top-tier" Masters Series-Madrid event is missing world No. 1 Roger Federer, No. 2 Andy Roddick and No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt, the WTA continues to struggle to get all their top players to consistently come together for anything short of the grand slams.

On the positive side this week, Zurich boasts No. 2 Amelie Mauresmo and your typical slew of Russians, including cell phone mannequin and Wimbledon holder Maria Sharapova. Also among the seeds are French and US Open runner-up Elena Dementieva, Vera "The Crying Game" Zvonareva, Nadia Petrova, and added seeds (after the Serena/Lindsay pulls) No. 9 Ai Sugiyama and No. 10 Patty Schnyder.

The top four seeds receive byes in typical WTA early-round-killing fashion, but there are a couple of first round and plenty of potential second round matches of interest in (10) Schnyder vs. Maggie Maleeva, (6) The Crying Game vs. Aussie riser Alicia Molik in a second-round possibility, (8) Petrova vs. (WC) Lisa Raymond, (7) Venus vs. Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem, (4) Sharapova vs. the Daniela Hantuchova-(WC) Vera Douchevina winner, (9) Sugiyama vs. qualifier Shinobu Asagoe in an all-Japanese, and (3) Dementieva vs. Elena "Lena" Bovina in a potential all-Russian second rounder.

Former champions in this year's field are Patty Schnyder (2002), Venus (1999), and Maleeva (1994-93).

Last year's finals were (2) Henin-Hardenne roasting Jelena Dokic 6-0, 6-4 in the singles, and (2) Kim Clijsters/Sugiyama upsetting (1) Virginia Ruano Pascual/Paola Suarez 7-6(3), 6-2 in the doubles.