Former BBC presenter Sue Barker believes WTA missing star power in vein of Maria Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams

Former BBC presenter Sue Barker believes that the WTA Tour is currently lacking star power which Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams and Serena Williams had.

Tennis is a very interesting sport which tends to evolve with everyone generation of players that comes. This generation of players is very talented as the level of tennis played is certainly very high however there seems to be something missing. The stands don't get packed as much as they used to in the past and many have pointed out the lack of a clear crowd-magnet.

Players like Swiatek, Sabalenka and Rybakina are all great players but none of them moved the meter like the Williams sisters or Maria Sharapova did. Even the lesser players of that time like Ivanovic and others drew crowds in with the performances. This is not happening with this generation though times might change.

Sue Barker followed both generations and she can certainly spot some trends with both. She voiced her opinions recently:

"It's a slight dilemma for a tournament director with the men's game being best of five sets and the women's being best of three. If you do schedule a match for the night session and it only lasts an hour, because some of the women's matches only last an hour, then the public isn't going to like it."

Barker added:

"It's a very difficult, tricky situation for Amelie [Mauresmo] to be in. And sadly, now with Serena [Williams] having gone, there aren't the big names in the women's game at the moment. They've got to build up. What we really need is a few really good players to be in the slam finals for a few years and build up that rivalry that we've seen with Roger [Federer] and Rafael [Nadal] and Novak [Djokovic] and Andy [Murray]."

Finishing up with:

"It's a very difficult, tricky situation for Amelie [Mauresmo] to be in. And sadly, now with Serena [Williams] having gone, there aren't the big names in the women's game at the moment. They've got to build up. What we really need is a few really good players to be in the slam finals for a few years and build up that rivalry that we've seen with Roger [Federer] and Rafael [Nadal] and Novak [Djokovic] and Andy [Murray]."