With all this talk about who is and is not a member of Gen Suck, I thought it's time to really formally outline what we mean when we use the term. When we talk about Generation Suck, I think that we mean the players who were expected to be the new stars following the WTA's "greatest" generation (i.e. the Williams sisters, Hingis, Henin, Clijsters, Davenport, Capriati, Seles, Pierce, Dementieva, Mauresmo et al), but who turned out to be either lackluster highly ranked players (Safina, Jankovic, Wozniacki, Radwanska), spectacular train wrecks (Vaidosova), injury flame-outs (Golovin, Szavay) or just plain over-hyped flops (Peer, Paszek, Krajicek, Chakvetadze & many, many others)
Although people started complaining loudly about the crap performance of the young generation in around 2007, I would place the roots of Gen Suck quite a bit earlier, in 2003. For me, the original member of Generation Suck has to be Hantuchova (b. 1983), who crashed and burned in the summer of that year after being the most hyped WTA player since Kournikova. Hantuchova set the tone for what was to follow over most of the next 8 years among the so called up and comers.
I choose a broad definition of Gen Suck as comprising all players born between 1983-1990, though not including Clijsters and Dokic, who clearly belonged to the previous generation. The one obvious exception to the Gen Suck template is Sharapova (b. either 1986 or 1987 depending on who you believe), but even she has failed to deliver much since AO '08. Despite her RG '08 title, Ivanovic's disastrous record since then makes her an obvious Gen Suck member. The only other possible exceptions are Stosur (b. 1984 but too much of a late bloomer to have ever been considered a hyped player), Kvitova (too early to say if last year was a fluke), Azarenka (she won a GS and we cant assume her downfall yet), and Kuznetsova (a classic under-achiever, but 2 GS titles and 2 RU is still a decent record).
Ideally I would like to present the entire list of Gen Suck disappointments, so help me out, and I'll add to this OP as I have time.
Although people started complaining loudly about the crap performance of the young generation in around 2007, I would place the roots of Gen Suck quite a bit earlier, in 2003. For me, the original member of Generation Suck has to be Hantuchova (b. 1983), who crashed and burned in the summer of that year after being the most hyped WTA player since Kournikova. Hantuchova set the tone for what was to follow over most of the next 8 years among the so called up and comers.
I choose a broad definition of Gen Suck as comprising all players born between 1983-1990, though not including Clijsters and Dokic, who clearly belonged to the previous generation. The one obvious exception to the Gen Suck template is Sharapova (b. either 1986 or 1987 depending on who you believe), but even she has failed to deliver much since AO '08. Despite her RG '08 title, Ivanovic's disastrous record since then makes her an obvious Gen Suck member. The only other possible exceptions are Stosur (b. 1984 but too much of a late bloomer to have ever been considered a hyped player), Kvitova (too early to say if last year was a fluke), Azarenka (she won a GS and we cant assume her downfall yet), and Kuznetsova (a classic under-achiever, but 2 GS titles and 2 RU is still a decent record).
Ideally I would like to present the entire list of Gen Suck disappointments, so help me out, and I'll add to this OP as I have time.
