Normally I don't comment on specific matches but I wanted to give a special shout out of R-E-S-P-E-C-T to four women who battled it out on the red clay of Paris today: Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Kirilenko, Aravane Rezai, and Nadia Petrova. Although Kirilenko defeated the defending champion Kuznetsova in three sets while Petrova and Rezai battled to 7-all in the final set before darkness halted play, all four women played almost flawless tennis in the late hours of the Paris evening.

But more than that, they did themselves and the WTA tour proud by showing that women's tennis, despite recent media focus on see-through dresses and hyped-up "catfights" over hand gestures, can provide fans with compelling, high quality matches on any given day. Sure this was during a Grand Slam where everything gets heightened to another level, but great WTA tour matches take place throughout the year, and probably at a local tournament near you.

There's been a lot of recent articles commenting on how today's women's game isn't as exciting as it was "back in the day" and that some of the top players could stand to lose a few pounds. Although I will concede that plenty of women's matches sometimes don't live up to hype either due to nerves or lack of great play, I counter that argument by saying not every ATP match is a scintillating tour de force either. Sometimes I feel like the WTA tour, especially at combined Masters events or even Grand Slams, gets second billing status by the very sports media sent to cover them.

Sure there's been some really lopsided women's finals at Grand Slams recently, but the men have had their fair share too. My point is that many reporters covering tennis at the French Open should stop reducing the women players to just what they wear on court or focusing on who said what to who two months ago during a match that nobody barely remembers and instead focus on the actual matches at hand. I know catfights and hemlines sell papers (of the digital kind now) but this isn't junior high or a teenage sitcom on Fox or the CW. Let's give the women of the WTA tour a little more respect both on the court and in the press room. Those who played their hearts out today certainly deserve it.