Why is women’s sport like renewable energy? Because even though millions of people are desperate to see it succeed, it remains a niche product, still tapping hopefully at the windows of the establishment.
Over the past 40-odd years, the only consistent exception to this rule has been the Women’s Tennis Association. It turned Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf into sporting deities, and paved the way for top-10 regulars such as Agnieszka Radwanska to become multi-millionaires.
And yet, in recent months, even this last redoubt of equal-opportunities sport has started to look vulnerable. The WTA continues to expand its operations – last year it ran 59 tournaments worldwide and claimed a combined audience of 395 million – but its own finances have taken a significant hit since Sony Ericsson quit as title sponsor in 2012. In 2014, the accounts lapsed into the red, forcing a raid on a savings pot that is reputed to have dwindled to less than $10 million.How much of this is down to mismanagement, and how much to the shortcomings of the on-court narrative? It is a hard question. Stacey Allaster, WTA chief executive for the past six years, had a confrontational style that meant she burnt through staff at a rapid rate. Yet the absence of a truly convincing young champion to take up the mantle of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova has hardly helped.
Maria Sharapova hasn't beaten Serena Wiliams since 2004 Photo: Getty Images
It feels as if women’s tennis has been stuck on pause since Williams embarked on her Indian summer in partnership with coach Patrick Mouratoglou, winning eight of the last 14 grand slams. This would not be a problem if we could point to a vibrant supporting cast. Yet three of the remaining six majors went to veterans who proceeded to retire soon afterwards (Marion Bartoli, Li Na and Flavia Pennetta). Yes, Sharapova did pop up to snatch the 2014 French Open, but she has not beaten Williams since 2004.
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All this provides a context for Allaster’s decision to step down in October on health grounds. Her successor, Steve Simon, is a 60-year-old with a reputation for calm efficiency, and it surprised many when he agreed to switch one of the cushiest jobs in sport (tournament director of Indian Wells, the opulent event owned by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison) for an organisation that is on its uppers. Further wry shakes of the head followed last week when the four top-ranked women all pulled out of their first event of the season with fitness concerns.
Serena Williams remains the dominant force in women's tennis Photo: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
And yet, perhaps Simon is the canny one. Is it not the smart thing to take over when stock is low? Especially when Williams’s body is creaking, and a changing of the guard could be just around the corner.
Williams can hardly be blamed for the shortcomings of her so-called rivals, nor for her own ruthlessness in disposing of them. And yet the public have clearly become numbed by her sustained supremacy. It might not be the worst thing for the WTA if this year Williams’s chronic knee trouble took the edge off her athleticism.
Could this be Garbine Muguruza's year?
Sport is cyclical and the wheel will surely turn again. In 1988, for example, the celebrated tennis nut Martin Amis wrote that “the women’s game is now more interestingly poised than the men’s – as well as being better fun to watch.” There is no reason why the new breed (Belinda Bencic, Garbine Muguruza, Madison Keys) could not evolve into a galaxy of stars over the next decade. For there is one other thing that women’s sport and renewable energy have in common. Despite all the institutional inertia, the long-term graph can only be pointing one way – and that is up.
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