• What the Deuce

A gaping hole

Serena Williams will not defend her Australian Open title © Getty Images

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Love her or loathe her, Serena Williams' absence leaves a gaping hole at the Australian Open.

Like the year that Manchester United opted out of playing in the FA Cup to play in the Club World Championship, there will forever be an asterisk hanging over Chelsea's 2000 FA Cup triumph.

When fit, Williams has no equal - as demonstrated by her 13 grand slam titles - nearly double that of any of the other current women's player - with sister Venus Williams and Justine Henin leading the chasing pack on seven. Having won the title five times in eight years, Williams will be sorely missed by the organisers in Melbourne.

To put it into perspective, the last woman to reach double figures was Steffi Graf - who won her 22nd and final major title four months before Williams claimed her first at the 1999 US Open. It may not have been obvious at the time, but it seems now that it was a changing of the guard.

Williams played just six tournaments in 2010 and has not been seen swinging a tennis racket since her victory at Wimbledon. But it speaks volumes that she currently holds two of the four grand slam titles and is still ranked as world No. 4.

Just as Roger Federer's 2009 Wimbledon triumph was lessened by the absence of defending champion Rafael Nadal; whoever gets their hands on the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup on Saturday week, it will be without having to face the most successful player of her generation.

With Serena out of the running, Kim Clijsters is the favourite to win her fourth grand slam crown - her first Down Under. The third seed is a popular figure in Melbourne - the Australian tennis fans nicknamed her 'Aussie Kim' when she was engaged to Australian No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt.

The Belgian will be keen to atone for last year's shock defeat to Nadia Petrova in the third round. Clijsters stormed up the rankings following her stunning US Open victory in 2009, and she proved it was no fluke with a comfortable defence of her crown at Flushing Meadows in September.

Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters are two names that could benefit from Williams' absence © Getty Images

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Clijsters' successful comeback inspired Henin to dust off her racket, and the seven-time grand slam champion returned to action last season, and the unranked and unseeded Belgian came agonisingly close to a fairytale comeback - eventually denied in three sets by none other than Serena Williams in the final.

Henin's return hit a setback when she injured her elbow at Wimbledon, and wasn't seen again last season. After winning all four singles matches in the Hopman Cup in Perth in her season opener, Henin admitted she was still not at full strength, but if anyone can play through the pain it is Henin, whose power defies her diminutive stature.

The 2004 champion is one of only two former champions in the women's field - Maria Sharapova the other. Like Clijsters, Sharapova will be desperate to make it into the second week after a premature exit at the hands of Maria Kirilenko last year. It is three years since Sharapova last won a title, and although the 14th seed is a rank outsider for the crown, she has been handed a favourable draw in Melbourne.

She could face fourth seed Venus Williams in the fourth round with a potential quarter-final clash against eighth seed Victoria Azarenka awaiting - both matches Sharapova could reasonably expect to win.

Should Sharapova put a run together, she could face top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals, but despite the Dane's top billing she is not considered the favourite. But despite the unwelcome claim to be only one of three women to hold the top ranking without having won a grand slam (Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic the others), she insists she has nothing to prove.

"I don't feel I need to prove anything to anybody," she said. "You don't become No. 1 winning small tournaments or doing bad results. You know, I'm a good player, I've done great results. I won six tournaments last year. I don't have to prove anything."

She may feel she has nothing to prove, but victory in Melbourne would certainly silence her critics - and it would indicate a power shift in women's tennis. The current holders of the grand slams (Williams, Francesca Schiavone, Williams, Clijsters) are all 27 and over - victory for the 20-year-old Wozniacki could signal the start of a new generation of women's tennis.

Victory for for one of the old guard would suggest Wozniacki still has some way to go.

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