"It indicates that the general level of women's tennis has dropped": Barazzutti believes Venus Williams winning at 43 shows state of WTA

The Italian Davis Cup Captain, Corrado Barazzutti, believes that the level of WTA tennis is low if Venus Williams can win at the age of 43 as she did in the past few days.

Venus Williams has been making some noise on grass this year beating Camila Giorgi in Birmingham and narrowly losing to Jelena Ostapenko. Both of those players are really good, especially Ostapeno who has at times played near a top 10 level this year. Venus though is 43 and hasn't played in months before returning to grass which tells the coach that the level generally on the WTA right now isn't particularly high. Even Venus being a huge champion and legend of the game doesn't mean much to Barazzutti.

He said:

"Venus Williams was a champion but if she is still able to win matches on the major circuit at 43, beating a top 50 player like Camila Giorgi, it indicates that the general level of women's tennis has dropped."

Barrazutti could be right in that the level has dropped off a bit but generally many would argue that it's been the highest it's been in a while. At least on the top. Swiatek, Rybakina and Sabalenka have played on a higher level compared to the rest of the field though again, according to those words the rest of the field isn't playing that great.

It's tough to draw the line between whether these top players are as good as they are because the competition is weak or whether they are truly as good as they are. Comparing eras is very tough and while the level right now might not be as high as it was 10 years ago, it's still tennis and it still counts. Records are being written, grand slams are being played so essentially it really doesn't even matter.