Tiger and Serena hold a lot in common besides being instantaneously identified by mention of only their first name. Both arrived at their respective sports at early ages, both were raised under the over-protective and relentless teaching of their fathers, both became the most dominant figures at their sports, so much so that competitions and events would be almost won simply by their appearance. Finally both have stumbled as of late and lost their edge of invincibility.

In a stretch from 2002 to 2003 Serena Williams was the undisputed Queen of tennis. Heck she might have even made a case for being King too if she was allowed to face off against the men. In that time Serena won 5 out of 6 majors including 4 straight when she won the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2002 and completed a matching of Tiger's much ballyhooed version of the Grand Slam with her own "Serena Slam" when she won the Australian Open in 2003. But since collecting her last major trophy in 2003 at Wimbledon she has been in a major drought, failing to bring home a single championship, highlighted earlier this month at the U.S Open where she lost in controversial fashion to Jennifer Capriati. Much of the drought can be explained by injury. Knee problems relegated Serena to only 5 tournaments from Wimbledon 2003 to Wimbledon 2004 and tournament withdrawals have continued including a late decision to withdraw from the Olympics as she continues to round into playing shape.

	Serena's interest in fashion has transcended onto the court.

The injury downtime gave Serena some time to venture into other projects most notably a conscientious effort to be noticed and make in-roads into Hollywood with commercials and various award show appearances, to Jamie Foxx's delight. Serena has also made forays into pursuing a fashion career and her love of fashion has spilled onto the tennis court. Who can forget her "Cat Suit" and more recently her unveiling of tennis boots at the U.S. Open. Serena certainly embraces that portion of her image, "I have always considered myself an entertainer, not just a normal athlete. Everybody comes in and talks about their game, but that's so boring and redundant." You have to wonder if Serena will ever approach that dominance she displayed a few years ago, what with all her new off-court distractions coupled with a new wave of young competitors ready to earn their way to the top.

"I am close, real close, I feel good about what I'm doing."

Tiger's stock response to his struggles has become as laughable as the Kansas City Chiefs attempt to convince anyone that bringing in Gunther Cunningham as defensive coordinator would suddenly dispel all questions about the Chiefs porous defense despite retaining the same D unit. The 2004 version of Tiger is so far removed from the 2000-early 2001 version that you need to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to find a lineage. I'm not so sure as sports fans we appreciated how impressive a feat Tiger was in the midst of pulling off. Winning 9 out of 20 tournaments entered, finishing in the top 10 in all but 3 out of those 20 tournaments, winning the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 strokes with a score of 12-under par and of course pulling off the Tiger Slam. It's like we were in the eye of storm and it's not until the eye dissipated did the impact hit us of what Tiger accomplished.

There are plenty of theories as to why Tiger's performance has slipped and everyone seems to have their favourite.

	Tiger has yet to win a major since leaving the tutelage of Harmon behind.

The split with Swing coach Butch Harmon is perhaps the most popular and most logical reason cited. Tiger has yet to win a major post-Harmon and at times has been outplayed by Harmon's latest prodigy, Aussie Adam Scott, whose swing strikes an uncanny resemblance to Tiger's swing…that is his old one. It seems like Tiger's reluctance to even acknowledge that he needs Harmon's help is born out of pride and stubbornness. When Tiger was winning all those tournaments I'm sure it irked him and hurt his ego a little when Harmon received much praise and attention for his teaching.

The Swedish Nanny Theory: How do you derail the most dominant athlete in sports? Put a smokin' hot Swedish blonde in front of him. Conspiracy theorists will peculate that Jesper Parnevik's old nanny was conveniently introduced to Woods just to give the rest of the golfing world a chance. Funny as it seems pre-Elin Tiger seemed completely and relentlessly married to the game of golf and other than driving around in a Buick it was hard to picture him anywhere other than a golf course. Relationships can cloud and alter priorities. Everyone has that buddy who goes MIA the minute he gets involved in a relationship. You know the guy who refuses to go out, is no longer as involved in fantasy leagues and misses the Super Bowl to watch a Trading Spaces marathon. You gotta wonder when the last time Tiger hung out with Carson Daly and all his other boys.

One theory that really hasn't been examined is lack of play. Tiger simply doesn't play in enough tournaments to make the adjustments to his game and intimidate his other competitors week after week. You can't blame him because each tourney he plays in is a major event, he is hoarded by autograph seekers, the media covers his every move and galleries swell by the thousands watching his every move. On average Vijay Singh, who overtook Tiger for the No.1 seeding in the world plays 1.5 tournaments to every one Tiger plays and Phil Mickelson plays in 25% more tournaments than Woods. The interesting thing is that Tiger is only playing slightly less tournaments than he was when he was in Tiger Slam mode but unlike then his swing mechanics are off. If Tiger is too stubborn to go back to Harmon to fix the problems then he needs to play his way out of it and that means playing more rather than less. There used to be a time when Tiger was so good that he would win a tournament solely on the fact that he was registered to play and his opponents knew he was going to win. He carried an attitude and machismo that would send shivers down opponent's spines. Now on the rare occasions that opponents see Tiger they see a player who struggles, slams his clubs down and yells at camera men.

All that talk about Serena & Tiger slumping has to be taken with a certain grain of salt; what is considered a slump for these two would actually constitute a successful campaign for another play. The reason we view their recent play as disappointing is because of how high they've raised the bar. We expect them to pull off the unbelievable. If quotes are any indication it seems like Serena has the right mindset to once again reach the top, "I'm actually even more serious now, because . . . before when I was able to play, I think I took it for granted. You know, I was winning, yeah, but it was like, 'Oh, whatever'. But now it's a totally different attitude, I'm really serious about it, and I really want to win. I really just hate to lose." It'd be nice to hear something like that from Tiger, some honesty, "I'm not happy with my game and I don't feel close but damn it, when I am you'll know." Parity in sport is great and all but what really gets people talking are dynasties and it'd be fun to once again talk about what else Serena and Tiger can accomplish rather than what's wrong with them.