A few years back, with Serena Williams away, recovering from her post 2010 Wimbledon accident and the hematoma scare, the unpredictability of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) was making headlines.
She came back to bring a modicum of regularity but, with her power on the wane, the WTA is back to resembling a share market in upheaval. The past week at Montreal has confirmed that.
It started with Eugenie Bouchard, one of the success stories of the season and a Montreal native, being knocked out by American Shelby Rogers in the second round. Rogers’s compatriot, Coco Vandeweghe, then took care of two others seeds, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, before losing to doubles specialist Ekaterina Makarova, who had knocked out Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.
The French Open champion Maria Sharapova could not get past Carla Suarez Navarro, and Serena lost to elder sister Venus for the first time in five years.
Venus, who had earlier defeated sixth seed Angelique Kerber, then lost to Agnieszka Radwanska.
The Pole, a world No 5, became the 30th winner in 40 WTA tournaments this season.
The nine tournaments contested this year in the top three tiers of the tour have produced seven champions, with Sharapova and Serena the only repeat winners.
What that means for 2014’s final grand slam tournament is that it is impossible to pick a favourite.
Anybody could emerge from the haze to lift the US Open trophy.
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U19 World Cup in South Africa
Group A: India, Japan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka
Group B: Australia, England, Nigeria, West Indies
Group C: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Scotland, Zimbabwe
Group D: Afghanistan, Canada, South Africa, UAE
UAE fixtures
Saturday, January 18, v Canada
Wednesday, January 22, v Afghanistan
Saturday, January 25, v South Africa
UAE squad
Aryan Lakra (captain), Vriitya Aravind, Deshan Chethyia, Mohammed Farazuddin, Jonathan Figy, Osama Hassan, Karthik Meiyappan, Rishabh Mukherjee, Ali Naseer, Wasi Shah, Alishan Sharafu, Sanchit Sharma, Kai Smith, Akasha Tahir, Ansh Tandon
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
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