New queen for the hearts

After the exit of Justin Henin, it does look as if the women's event has lost the grind. None of the matches could be deemed compelling or had the ability to confound the senses of an appreciable spectator, trying to sneak in some hair-raising, heart-thumping moments.
Gone are the fast-paced serve and volleys and the powerful groundstrokes hallmark of an exhilarating, adrenalin pumping round of play.
What exactly is a thrilling match?
A three-setter, peppered with service-breaks, assorted with court stabbing aces and iced with incisive winners. Unfortunately the tournament glaringly missed any of these intrinsic ingredients essential to juice up the game.
It was a tired-looking but spirited Safina, taking on a relatively fresh, Ana Ivanovic, who had an easy run enroute to her final stint on the red dirt.
The picture at Roland Garros was akin to mud on fire. The scorecard reading 6-4, 6-3 was indicative of a smug win over a waning spurt of spirit, notwithstanding the seventh successive women’s final divested off those gurgling moments of climactic exhilaration.
The game did look to be precariously treading the path of a one-sided washout, if it weren't for some remnants of those flashes of rallying brilliance that egged Safina to win her previous two matches.
Visions of those earlier matches did forge the hope that she might just about find her bearings sooner than later. But it was too much to ask.With Henin abdicating the French Open throne, Roland Garros may have a prettier, more glamourous queen, and the sports promoters may be revelling at the prospect of shuttling between a blonde (Sharapova) and a brunette (Ivanovic). But what remains to be seen is whether quality in looks can be matched by quality in play.