TENNIS WIMBLEDON 2014 – On Monday the most famous event on the grass is about to start, with Wimbledon opening its gate once again. White cloths, strawberries and cream, and long queues are all ready to be featured as every year, but who are the favourite for the women’s title? Are there any must-watch in round one? Let’s find out. Giulio Gasparin
Results, Order of Play, Draws and Interviews from The Championships
On Monday the most famous event on the grass is about to start, with Wimbledon opening its gate once again. White cloths, strawberries and cream, and long queues are all ready to be featured as every year, but who are the favourite for the women’s title? Are there any must-watch in round one? Let’s find out.
Top Quarter:
As everyone would expect, this section is dominated by the world number one and first seed, Serena Williams. After failing to achieve the Roland Garros-Wimbledon combination in 2013, the American is very likely to be going to fight heart and soul for her most beloved slam of the season, especially after the early upset in Paris.
For her, there is an easy couple of early rounds, with a possible third match against Alize Cornet and then Eugenie Bouchard for a place in the quarter finals. Nor the French nor the Canadian player seem to pose a major threat to Serena on the surface.
Quite more uncertain seems to be the name of the opponent she might face at that stage, as the bottom half of this quarter is packed of good players on grass.
The French Open champion, Maria Sharapova, has not showed great skills on it for a long time and after two easy rounds to start with, she is likely to face either Camila Giorgi or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and both already beat her this year.
For the Russian then there could be another big challenge coming from Angelique Kerber, former semifinalist at Wimbledon and recent runner up at Eastbourne, or less likely from grass court specialists like Tamira Paszek or Kristen Flipkens.
Must-not-be-missed round ones:
-Heather Watson vs Ajla Tomljanovic: two youngsters taking on, very likely to be on a main court after the good run of Watson in Eastbourne.
-(24) Kristen Flipkens vs (q) Tamira Paszek: Last year’s semifinalst will face a former quarterfinalist and grass specialist in a match that could be as good as a round one can get.
-(26) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Alison Riske: the Russian is coming to Wimbledon strong of a win over Agnieszka Radwanska at Eastbourne, but the American is a natural grass courter and her serve and volleys have taken down big names many times.
Second Quarter:
Simona Halep is the highest seed to dominate this section of the draw and to be honest there seems to be no real challenge for the French Open finalist until the quarterfinals, as no grass specialists were drawn in that section and the seeds in there are either out of form or not naturally good on grass.
The bottom section of this quarter is on the contrary very much open to surprises, where the highest seed is Jelena Jankovic, whose difficult relationship with the grass is well known. The Serb could find it very hard to come past a round one match against Kaia Kanepi, but even if so, names like Yaroslava Shvedova, Monica Puig and Madison Keys are all there to cause an upset.
Ana Ivanovic is in the same part too and her opening match against Francesca Schiavone could be closer than one would expect, but most of all, there is Sabine Lisicki for a possible round three.
Must-not-be-missed round ones:
-(11) Ana Ivanovic vs Francesca Schiavone: the Italian might not be the same player that won Roland Garros a couple of seasons ago, but she is a big fighter and loves the big stages.
– Madison Keys vs Monica Puig: two of the most interesting youngsters are facing each other on a surface that both clearly love. Puig won their latest match just a few weeks ago on clay, but Keys will come strong of a title run in Eastbourne.
Third Quarter:
Agnieszka Radwanska and Victoria Azarenka are the highest two seeds on this section, but both of them have several doubts in terms of their form heading towards the Championship.
Both players lost in their opening match at Eastbourne, but if for Azarenka that was a comeback from months outside of the tour and she was tested by a true specialist like Giorgi, for Radwanska it was a very bad display against Pavlyuchenkova.
For the Belorussian the opening match could be quite hard, as Mirjana Lucic-Baroni is a grass courter and though her form is missing lately, she is not new to causing upsets.
The most dangerous floater in this section is surely Coco Vandeweghe, who has just captured her first career title in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and has served most aces than anyone else on tour in the past two weeks (more than 110!).
For Radwanska the opener should not be too difficult as she will play Romanian qualifier Andreea Mitu, but as usual it is hard to know what to expect from Svetlana Kuznetsova, the first seed she might face.
Must-not-be-missed round ones:
-(27) Garbine Muguruza vs Coco Vandeweghe: the rematch of St Hertogenbosch quarter finals.
-(22) Ekaterina Makarova vs Kimiko Date-Krumm: because both love grass and Date is always amazing to watch on the green fields of Wimbledon.
Bottom Quarter:
This is the quarter that lacks a clear favourite, but does not feature any foreseeable outsider. Li Na is the second seed and her draw seems very kind until a possible fourth round with what looked like a reinvigorated Caroline Wozniacki.
The main favourite for the semifinal could be Petra Kvitova, who has an easy draw until a possible clash with Venus Williams in the third round and then a probably easier fourth round with either Flavia Pennetta or Sloane Stephens.
Must-not-be-missed round ones:
-(18) Sloane Stephens vs Maria Kirilenko: if there is a surface where Kirilenko can find her game, it is probably grass. After her knee injury the Russian has not produced any notable tennis, but she is still one to watch.
