Women's health only skin deep

AT THE BEGINNING of the millennium, the Sanex women's tour was booming. Crowds were at record levels and television ratings soared. In 2001, nine new tournaments were added to the season as more than 1,000 women competed in 33 different countries for $50million in prize money. Frank L Meyerson, chairman of Sanex, wrote in his annual message: 'Women's tennis is definitely on the rise and obtaining the overall recognition it deserves. It is with pride that we are looking back at the first 12 months of being the title sponsor of the Sanex WTA Tour.

'A year during which both the Tour and Sanex demonstrated to be perfect team players in promoting the awareness of women's tennis and "a healthy skin" at the same time. Obviously no surprise, as the Tour and Sanex share the same attributes of being healthy, young and dynamic.'

That was then. Last week, Kevin Wulff, CEO (that's the Chief Executive Officer) of the WTA, and Josh Ripple, president and COO (that's the Chief Operating Officer) of the WTA, were relieved of their initials. On New Year's Eve, Sanex stood down as title sponsor - 'a healthy skin' no longer proving the perfect doubles partner for women's tennis despite all those shared attributes. There goes the free deodorant.

Meanwhile, Nike are said to have offered Serena Williams a year's worth of everyone's prize money to defect from Puma. A sum that, were she to leap over the clothing wall, would make her the most expensively paid-to-wear player in sport, relegating her sister into second place. Together the Williams sisters will receive about $90 (£60m) to wear sponsored products. Within a year they have established a dominance that Celtic and Rangers took a century to establish. The players who would be their rivals have fallen away like so many Aberdeens. Lindsay Davenport is injured more often than not, Jennifer Capriati may not win another slam, and Martina Hingis said last week that it was very possible she would not compete any more.

It is very possible that no one, other than the sisters Williams, will compete in any slam final in the foreseeable future. Serena and Venus are so far ahead of the game it's as if Martina Navratilova had a younger sister whom she couldn't take a set off or Tiger Woods a twin brother who offered him strokes.

Great for the family but not so great for the sport. The Williamses, having kick-started the boom, are now responsible for it being on the verge of going bust. Tennis grew rich off the Williams sisters, now the Williams sisters are growing rich without tennis. The sport resembles a fund manager who invested heavily in dotcoms.

Tennis, which has never cared for them, can thrive neither with them or without them. Either they serve up Williams v Williams followed by Williams v Williams followed by Williams v Williams - a three-course affair that has echoes of Reggie Perrin ordering ravioli as starter, main course and dessert - or they are reduced to offering fare as meagre as Kim Clijsters v Someoneorotherova.

Nor is it easy to sympathise with the WTA's predicament. Throughout they have treated the Williams sisters with mistrust. The dad was daffy, the girls were kooky. There was something freaky about the family. Whatever, thought the Williams sisters, and proceeded to marmalise the opposition. The tennis public, every bit as much as CNN war-coverage junkies, demand, respect and expect a close contest. The current scene in Melbourne is playing about as well as an immediate and total surrender from Saddam Hussein would go down with war addicts in Minneapolis who have booked sabbaticals for February.

But why should the Williamses care? They started playing professional tennis late and have always stated they intend to leave early. It's not that they don't like the game, it's just there are other things they enjoy doing. The more they are paid the less they have to play. They can afford to concentrate on the slams and give a miss to very forgettable tour events that will be rendered even less significant by their absence. For all Frank L Myerson's talk of Sanex and the Tour's dynamism, it is the sisters who are dynamic and the rest who are static. There will be more initials on the corporate indoor carpet before the Williamses are done.