• What the Deuce

Where have all the youngsters gone?

Francesca Schiavone is the oldest Grand Slam winner in 41 years © Getty Images

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When Martina Hingis won her first Grand Slam title, she wasn't old enough to vote. Hingis' maiden title came at the 1997 Australian Open at the age of 16; Steffi Graf and Maria Sharapova were both 17. In winning the French Open on Saturday, Francesca Schiavone, at her 39th attempt, became the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam title since the 30-year-old Ann Haydon-Jones won Wimbledon in 1969.

Women's tennis is famed for youngsters making the cut at a young age, with the likes of Hingis, Sharapova, and Jennifer Capriati, who broke into the world top ten when she was just 14, although she did not win a Grand Slam until she was 24.

Yet just a few weeks before her 30th birthday, Schiavone has been catapulted into the top ten for the first time, while Hingis, a few months younger than the Italian, has long been retired.

And it's not just Schiavone who is defying the years. At 39, Kimiko Date Krumm became the oldest player to beat a top ten player when she beat Dinara Safina in Paris last week. Liezel Huber, 33, has dominated the women's doubles since 2007. And when Rossana de los Rios made her debut in 1989, Caroline Wozniacki wasn't even born.

Wozniacki is the sole teenager in the top twenty, and one of only two players under the age of 25 in the top ten. The average age of the top ten is 26, compared with 23 four years ago, when there were seven players under the age of 25. So why is it that the top players are getting older?

"It doesn't matter what the age - if you've got that desire, anyone can do it," Sam Stosur said after her defeat to Schiavone on Saturday. "It proves you don't have to be a teenage wonderkid superstar."

The same question was asked of Serena Williams just a couple of weeks ago. Her response was philosophical, if not entirely groundbreaking. She said: "I was also a teenager once. I was in the top 25, but I ended up getting older, unfortunately. It's inevitable."

Indeed. But the fact that Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters have successfully made their comebacks after two years out of the game suggests that the game hasn't moved on.

Where are the young Capriatis, Sharapovas and Hingis' of 2010? Is it a genuine dearth of talent, or is it simply that the likes of Serena and Venus Williams, Justine Henin and Elena Dementieva have endured in the same way that Roger Federer has continued to dominate the men's game for the best part of a decade. Or has the attitude to the game changed?

While Hingis' mother decided during pregancy that her daughter, named after none other than Martina Navratilova, would be a tennis player, and Capriati was swinging a racquet as soon she could walk, parents these days seem to be more wary of the long term consequences of creating a teenage tennis prodigy. Hingis was banned for cocaine use, and Capriati was arrested for shoplifting and later admitted to suffering depression.

Laura Robson became the darling of British tennis when she won the Wimbledon girls' title in 2008 © Getty Images

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When Laura Robson broke onto the scene after winning the Wimbledon girls' title two years ago, becoming the youngest winner since Hingis, we expected her to go on and repeat the heroics of of the Swiss Miss. Still only 16, Robson's team have limited her appearances at WTA Tour events, and in doing so avoid the burnout that so many of the top players endured.

After Robson's triumph at the All England Club, former British No. 1 Sam Smith heralded Robson as a genuine contender to emulate the success of Andy Murray in the women's game.

"They said she's not just the best 14-year-old Britain's ever produced, but she is one of the best 14-year-olds they have ever seen," she said. "The foundations of her game are there. She doesn't have any weaknesses at all. She has a game that, with a bit more strength, would stand up with the pros. It's not a junior game that will need to be changed.... If she doesn't make the top 20 by the time she is 20, somebody will have seriously screwed up."

It remains to be seen whether Robson, Heather Watson, or indeed 13-year-old Lana Rush, who is tipped to be the next big star, have the talent, durability and desire to make it to the top. But the reality of the matter is that the Williams sisters and the Belgian pair cannot go on forever, and when they do finally bow out, there will be some pretty big boots to fill.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.