"Women's tennis lacking a superb rivalry with a little bit of edge" - says Mark Petchey

Tennis commentator Mark Petchey believes WTA tennis is lacking a proper rivalry as the majority of top players lack consistency.

While the top 10 in men's tennis largely remains unchanged for a prolonged period of time, the same thing can't be said of women's tennis. The Tour is known as one where players usually go in and out of the top weekly with the top rankings looking very different every few months. This year it's been better than most with Swiatek clearly in front of a couple of other players that have been fairly consistent.

Former player Mark Petchey would like to see a proper rivalry no the Tour that could drive the narrative forward:

"Rivalries drive the sport. What they do is make sure that it manifests itself in a big polarisation of a large fan base, against another one. You look across the board, over F1, look at the tribal nature of AFL, of Premier League football here. It’s a huge part of what you need to have a successful sport. That is the one thing that is missing from the women’s tour at the moment, is a superb rivalry, with a little bit of edge."

Petchey is disappointed that Barty retired from tennis as he thinks the Swiatek - Barty battle would have been fascinating to watch this season:

“That’s why I say I’m sad that Ash pulled up stumps, because I think that rivalry could’ve developed with Iga in that way. Would it have been quite as intense as the Rafa-Novak and Roger-Novak rivalries? Probably not. But it would have been there. Going into every major saying that you’re not looking forward to a specific clash potentially when the draw comes out, does hurt the tour a little bit. You can’t keep saying ‘oh, anyone can win it’. Because you’re just not tagging anybody… you’re not setting the scene for something amazing that’s going to happen, a nice little volcanic eruption right at the back-end of a major.They need some people to be a bit more consistent and getting through, because that’s what will be a massive driver for the WTA.”