Tennis: Russian Women Ready to Call Tune

While the men's tennis world drools over the sublime skills of Switzerland's Roger Federer, the undisputed world No1, the women find themselves entering the new year with a coughing, spluttering Lindsay Davenport as their nominal leader of the pack.

Federer is the current holder of three grand slam titles; Davenport has not won a major since she defeated Martina Hingis here five years ago.

Yet it is the women who have just struck a major sponsorship deal with Sony Ericsson, adding weight to the theory that sport is as much to do with striking a pose as mere excellence.

It is to be hoped that Davenport recovers from her bout of bronchitis. However, there is no doubt that those who have invested heavily in the women's game, while not wishing the 28-year-old American any harm, will be hoping that Maria Sharapova, the reigning Wimbledon champion, or a rejuvenated Serena Williams, will be more central to the proceedings over the next couple of weeks.

Last year four different women captured the four grand slam titles, yet none ended the year in the world's top two. France's Amélie Mauresmo, the No2 behind Davenport, had much success at a lower level, winning five WTA titles but, like the Californian, she did not reach a slam final.

Success at Tour level, it appeared, meant more than grand slam achievement. It was an anomaly - a transitional period that will almost certainly change this year with, probably, one of the Russians forcing her way to the top via success at the slams.

Anastasia Myskina won the French Open; Svetlana Kusnetsova triumphed in New York and Elena Dementieva was the beaten finalist at both Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows. One of these three, or Sharapova, will surely force her way to the top, with Sharapova, 18 in April, the most likely to succeed.

Sharapova is a woman in a hurry and one with a distinct awareness of her destiny. Much has been written, particularly with reference to Yevgeny Kafelnikov, now retired, and Marat Safin, about the suspect Russian temperament - yet it is an argument that Sharapova appears to invalidate.

Her determination and will to win are implacable. She is still capable of tactical inflexibility, sometimes naivety, but she does not lose for want of self-belief. After Wimbledon Sharapova struggled to come to terms with the concomitant pressures, only to re-emerge triumphant at the end-of-season Tour Championships in Los Angeles where, as at Wimbledon, she defeated Serena Williams in the final.

To get to the final here Sharapova may need to defeat Williams again, this time in the semi-finals, while she faces a possible quarter-final against Kuznetsova. The rest of the Russians have no great liking for Sharapova, who has lived in the US since she was nine, and her father, Yuri, displayed worrying signs in Los Angeles of exacerbating such differences.

Myskina has already vowed not to play in any Russian Federation Cup side that includes Sharapova, principally because of the antics of Yuri, who appears to have the makings of that bane of women's tennis, the "father from hell". It is to be hoped that common sense prevails.

Such tedious matters as over-bearing parents aside, Sharapova has a modern game of power and directness that will be difficult to counter once her experience on all surfaces increases. To date she has played in only eight slam tournaments, the first being here two years ago when she lost in the first round. And unlike Myskina, Dementieva and Kuznetsova, she has no obvious weaknesses of shot.

Unlike Federer Sharapova does not look to have the virtuosity to lift her sport above the baseline bash that brought the Williams sisters to the fore, and the longing remains for someone with the innate ability of Hingis, but six or so inches taller, to appear on the scene.

The Williamses remain in denial that their days are numbered, Mauresmo, for all her talents, is still a bundle of barely contained nerves in the final weeks of a slam event, and Belgium's Justine Hénin-Hardenne, the reigning champion, is injured. The Australian is the one major the Russian women have yet to conquer but the odds on one of them succeeding this time look increasingly short.