By Nick Georgandis
Think the situation for American men's tennis is bad?
Take a look at the state of affairs for French women, one day after No. 7 Marion Bartoli's announcement that she is leaving the game effective immediately.
That leaves No. 28 Alize Cornet as the top-ranked player from a country that has hosted one of the four Grand Slams for more than 120 years, with No. 38 Kristina Mladenovic moving up to the No. 2 spot.
Beyond those two Top 50 players, the next highest-ranked Frenchwoman is No. 78 Caroline Garcia, followed by No. 95 Virginie Razzano, who at age 30, is likely soon to be following Bartoli into the sunset.
Cornet would seem a fine heir to Bartoli's throne, with the exception that her career might have already peaked despite the fact that she's only 23. In 2008 she finished No. 16 in the world, winning Budapest and reaching the finals of Acapulco and Rome.
She gained considerable attention as well from the remarks of Justin Gimelstob, whose now infamous rant about female players included calling Cornet a "sexpot" on a sports radio talk show in Washington, D.C., that summer.
She rose as high as No. 11 in early 2009, then staggered the rest of the way, losing 20 of her last 31 matches. She wound up the year ranked No. 50, then fell back to 78th in 2010 and 89th in 2011 before rebounding to 44th in 2012.
Mladenovic and Garcia are both 20 years old, although Garcia will turn 21 in October. Both are tall (Mladenovic 6 feet, Garcia 5-foot-10) and right-handed, but neither has a title to her credit as a professional.
Mladenovic has climbed nearly 40 spots in the rankings since the beginning of 2013, and has some nice wins under her belt this season including defeating No. 8 Petra Kvitova in the Paris semifinals in January,
Garcia is 23-18 so far in 2013, and is 60 spots higher than she was at the end of 2012. She was memorable at Wimbledon for battling through three rounds of qualifiers and past Jie Zheng before losing to Serena Williams in the second round.
As a country, France has hardly been dominant over the past 20 years, but the country has produced five Grand Slam singles titles since 1995 - two from Mary Pierce (1995, 2000), two from Amelie Mauresemo (2006) and the recent Wimbledon win for Bartoli.
The French Fed Cup team is currently at its lowest-ever ranking, No. 18, but has traditionally been one of the best in the world, playing every year since 1963 and reaching the World Group semifinals four straight years from 2008-2011.