Top 5 Stories of the 2016 Tennis Season So Far

Also making (and hesitantly topping) the list is Maria Sharapova’s failed drug test.  That has pretty much dominated the headlines in tennis recently.  As I mentioned in this piece, it raises a lot of questions such as whether Sharapova knew what she was doing and whether she was guilty of anything illicit.  Having such a big name in your sport fail a drug test is certainly not a good thing for the sport or for the WTA.  It might not have a huge impact on the bottom line of the WTA, although it will impact Sharapova’s bottom line, as many of her endorsers pulled out of deals with her.

For now.  Who knows if they’ll come back once this is finished.  We still don’t know how long she is going to be out.

Here’s one other thing.  Tennis needs stars.  Men’s tennis has several but two are ultimately on the downside of their careers.  Tennis can’t afford for its superstars to have things like this happen.  Now, with Sharapova out, the biggest marketable star on the women’s side is Serena Williams and both she and her sister are in their mid-30s.  Women’s tennis can’t afford to lose more of their marketable stars for a long time because they, just like the men, have very few young players who have shown the ability to become marketing stars.  Hence the media crush on Eugenie Bouchard after a few good results.

In short, Sharapova being out hurts herself and tennis as a whole.  Everybody should hope that this failed drug test doesn’t end up hurting women’s tennis as a whole.

Next: What's All This Mean?