Parity in women's tennis

During yesterday's French Open match between Martina Hingis and Ivana Lisjak the announcer mentioned in an aside that if the Swiss Miss (above) manages to take the championship (the only one of the majors that eluded her in what might be termed Phase 1 of her career, now that her comeback's afoot), she would be the ninth different woman to have taken each of the last nine Grand Slam tournaments.

It's fascinating to me that such parity should have somehow creeped in over the past few years, after years of single or two-player dominance.

The past eight majors and their winners:

Australian Open 2006 — Amélie Mauresmo

U.S. Open 2005 — Kim Clijsters

Wimbledon 2005 — Venus Williams

French Open 2005 — Justine Henin-Hardenne

Australian Open 2005 — Serena Williams

U.S. Open 2004 — Svetlana Kuznetsova

Wimbledon 2004 — Maria Sharapova

French 2004 — Anastasia Myskina

More on these tournaments here.

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Addendum at 4:18 p.m. ET Saturday, June 3: Hingis just won in straight sets in 45 minutes; she's lost only six games in her first three French Open matches.

She might just make it all the way back and take the championship if she can keep up her so-far brilliant play.