Ana Ivanovic, the 19-year-old bubbly brunette from Serbia, is the next great hope in women’s tennis, and that says as much about Ivanovic’s talent, which is considerable, as it does about the uncertainties that define the women’s game these days.

The sport is flush with cash, at least by recent standards: All the majors offer men and women equal prize money, and the tennis federations of Qatar and Turkey, with the help of their governments, this year agreed to put up $42 million each to host the tour’s year-end championships (first for three years in Doha, and then another three in Istanbul). More countries are contributing more players — and on average, better athletes — to the game than ever before, and more players have access to top coaches, physical trainers, and other experts, like nutritionists.

All this, and no one knows who will be the no. 1 player in the world next year, or perhaps even next month, or whether that woman might become something more than an occasional leader, or win more than two major titles, or any at all. Ivanovic is a fashionable pick, just as Maria Sharapova was last year and Nicole Vaidisova, the powerful teenager from the Czech Republic, has been for years. Injuries are so common that it’s anyone’s guess who might show up at any given tournament, or flame out in the middle of it. And no one can be counted upon to string together a bunch of well-played matches, rather than a good match followed by a clunker followed by another spectacular showing.

What’s wrong with the women’s game? Where is it going? What can be done to speed things along? No one has the answers, but theories, and complaints abound. The schedule is too long and too grueling (the WTA Tour is shortening its season to address this perceived problem); some of the women don’t care enough about the sport (hard to measure the veracity of that claim, though the Williams sisters often have been accused of it), and there are too many distractions — sponsorships, television commercials, fashion endeavors — that cut into practice time.

Robert Lansdorp, who trained Pete Sampras, Tracy Austin, Lindsay Davenport, and Sharapova, among others, has a more interesting theory: “What I think has happened is that the game is too big,” he said.

By big, Lansdorp means powerful. Everyone hits bruising strokes now, he said, but few women have adapted to the power to move into position for each shot. The prevalence of power and lack of preparation breeds more errors, and also causes more injuries as women go for more in situations that call for something less. Lansdorp doesn’t hold back when asked to describe what we’re left with right now.

“I think women’s tennis now basically sucks,” he said. “It’s not necessarily their fault, but women’s tennis is bad. These people cannot put three good matches together.”

Mary Carillo, the former pro and nowt elevision commentator for CBS, thinks Lansdorp might be on to something.

“I think what you see with the men, they are much more defensive minded than the women,” she said. “If the mentality is, ‘No matter what you are going to attack,’ that creates errors and injuries.”

Carillo cited Jelena Jankovic as the sort of player who might have learned tennis as more of a running game rather than a hitting game, and therefore has better defensive skills and perhaps more staying power (no one on the tour plays as often as Jankovic). Justine Henin, the no. 1 player in the world and an easy winner yesterday, also came to mind, as the prototype of what future players ought to strive for: excellent defense and movement, and superior offense when necessary. Unfortunately for tennis, the Belgian’s body has proven too fragile, so even when she survives entire tournaments, she often reaches finals in less than perfect condition.

All this brings to the forefront a question: Are the Williams sisters much farther ahead of their time than any of us have suspected? They have done the most to advance the women’s game, but in some ways that advance may have been too quick for the rest of the field to handle. There’s still no one on the tour, or on the immediate horizon, who can handle the power of the Williams sisters yet still move incredibly well, and do it consistently, as the sisters once did before they, too, sustained injuries, and at times lost interest in tennis. How long before women’s tennis finds another athlete like them, or better still, a superior one?

“I think it’s come to a point where the next person who can handle the pace, dish out power, and always be in position is going to be very hard to find,” Lansdorp said. “Ten years from now, maybe you’ll find [someone] like that.”

Ivanovic is the latest antidote. She’s tall, athletic, and has few technical flaws. She likes to volley. We repeat: likes to volley. She serves well, too, though she did develop a serious case of the yips in the French Open final earlier this year, when her toss went everywhere but straight up. It doesn’t hurt, in terms of press coverage, that she’s also beautiful and gives wonderful interviews, with a low ratio of the scripted nonsense we so often get from athletes. More important, she seems dedicated to her sport, and not much interested in the many opportunities coming her way now that she’s shown such promise.

Lansdorp likes Ivanovic, especially the way she approaches her forehand — always on her toes — and her build. But he’s not convinced yet that she can play well week after week.

“She looks a little soft,” he said.

The immediate future of the women’s game looks that way, too.

Mr. Perrotta is a senior editor at Tennis magazine. He can be reached at tperrotta@nysun.com.