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Reuters: When a 17-year-old Maria Sharapova lit up Wimbledon 10 years ago to win the title it was the launch pad to her becoming the world’s wealthiest sportswoman and an international tennis brand.
Yet despite the millions of dollars earned in prize money, endorsements and now a confectionary brand, the 27-year-old Russian’s hunger for victory remains insatiable.
After winning the French Open for a second time earlier this month, taking her grand slam haul to five, she is chasing a rare “Channel Double” last achieved by a woman in 2002 when Serena Williams proved unbeatable on clay and grass.
Sharapova stunned Serena Williams on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in 2004 to take the title, and the fact that they are the favourites at this Wimbledon speaks volumes for the enduring quality and determination of both players.
American Williams, who has bagged 17 grand slam titles, has struggled to live up to the sensational heights she scaled last year when she claimed the French and U.S. Opens and won 78 of the 82 matches she contested.
It seemed certain that she would go on to move in front of fellow Americans Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (both 18) on the all-time list of major singles triumphs but, as her 33rd birthday looms, time is maybe running out.
She has already lost as many matches this year as she did in the whole of 2013 and suffered a surprise second-round defeat at the French Open, although that could have been a blessing as the world No.1 will arrive at Wimbledon refreshed.
Absent champion
As a five-times champion she is most likely to open proceedings on Centre Court on Tuesday in the absence of last year’s winner Marion Bartoli, who will be watching from the commentary box having retired last year.
Another former champion, Chris Evert, believes that Williams will begin the tournament under pressure, after disappointing runs in the first two grand slams of the year, but providing she survives the early rounds will take some stopping.
“If she can get through the first week, that’s going to be the big thing,” Evert, who will be working for broadcaster ESPN during the tournament, said in a conference call.
“Once she gets the ball rolling, gets more comfortable on the grass, she’ll be unbeatable.”
Sharapova, seeded five, will hope to avoid a potential quarter-final with Williams because, despite her fearless persona on court against every other player in the world, the Russian has a timid record against the American, losing her last 15 matches against her, a sequence dating back 10 years.
“If she can do a double, the French and Wimbledon, that would be the greatest year she’ll ever have in her life,” Evert said, when assessing Sharapova’s chances.
For a player who once despised clay courts, Sharapova now looks completely at home on the dirt and a little awkward on grass, as was the case last year when she was bundled out in the second round by Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito.
“Remember all the slipping and sliding, the problems she had last year,” Evert said. “Footing is a big problem with her.”
Young guns
While most money will be on Williams and Sharapova, the women’s draw has plenty of depth this year with the likes of world number two and three-times quarter-finalist Li Na, French Open runner-up Simona Halep, Serbian duo Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic and young guns such as Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard beginning to make inroads.
“She likes grass. She likes to step in and take the ball early. She has power. I think she’s one to watch,” Evert said of the attack-minded Bouchard, whose style has many similarities to Sharapova’s when she broke through in 2004.
Halep, seeded three at Wimbledon, retired hurt in the second round of the Den Bosch Open on Wednesday with an upper back problem but said she expected to be fit for Wimbledon.
Ivanovic won her first grasscourt title in Birmingham last week, further proof that she is close to returning to the levels she reached when winning the French Open in 2008.
After struggling with the pressures of the Tour when she was younger, she is now savouring every match.
“I’m a happier person. I don’t judge myself by the results. I judge myself as a person and also the values and things that I have,” said the 26-year-old world No.11.
Jankovic, 29, has never made it past the fourth round in singles at Wimbledon, though she won the mixed doubles title in 2007 with Jamie Murray and she admits it is a surface that puzzles her.
“It’s just a couple of weeks a year that we get to play on it so like I said I’m trying to make the best out of it and hopefully this year will be better than the previous years,” she said at Eastbourne this week where she lost to big-hitting American Madison Keys.
Twice Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka may find Wimbledon a little too early in her comeback from a foot injury, while former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova suffered an injury scare at Eastbourne, pulling out with a hamstring problem.
Smooth Wimbledon start for defending champion Murray
LONDON (Reuters): Defending champion Andy Murray made a smooth return to Wimbledon with a 6-1 6-4 7-5 defeat of lively Belgian lightweight David Goffin on Centre Court on Monday.
The 27-year-old, who a year ago memorably became Britain’s first men’s singles champion at the All England Club for 77 years, walked on court to a standing ovation and responded with a clinical victory.
Murray, bumped up to third seed despite slipping to five in the world rankings since his Wimbledon triumph, was immediately in the grasscourt groove, outclassing Goffin in a 28-minute first set that resembled an exhibition match.
The 23-year-old Goffin, who has flat-lined since pushing Roger Federer hard in the fourth round of the 2012 French Open, shook off the early nerves to give Murray a match thereafter.
He even carved out two break points in the fourth game of the third set, only for Murray, with new coach Amelie Mauresmo watching on intently, to respond to the danger.
One flicked backhand down the line by Goffin to hold serve in the next game had the man from Liege smiling, but his resistance snapped at 5-5 when he dropped serve from 40-0 up.
Murray duly held serve in the next game to move through and maintain his record of avoiding first-round defeats at grand slams since an early loss at the 2008 Australian Open.
Stosur’s Wimbledon adventure over on day one
LONDON(Reuters: Former U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur’s unhappy union with Wimbledon continued on Monday as the Australian became the highest seed to fall by the wayside after a 6-3 6-4 first-round defeat by Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.
Cheered on by four-time grand slam champion Kim Clijsters from the stands, Wickmayer dominated play from the baseline to leave the 17th seed chasing shadows on a warm and sunny day at southwest London.
The result condemned Stosur to her sixth first-round exit at the grasscourt major, a tournament where she has failed to progress beyond the third round in 12 visits.Wickmayer will next face Croatia’s Ana Konjuh for a place in the third round.
Azarenka enjoys first win after six months of injury woes
LONDON (Reuters): Former world number one Victoria Azarenka won her first match since January’s Australian Open on Monday, beating Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3 7-5 in Wimbledon’s first round.
The eighth-seeded Belarusian had played only twice in the last six months because of an injury to her left foot.
“I’m so happy to get the win -- it’s been a long time since I had that feeling,” the 24-year-old told the BBC as she came off court.
Azarenka lost to Italian Camila Giorgi in the first round at Eastbourne last week but the three-set defeat did offer some invaluable grasscourt practice.
On Monday she looked comfortable in the first set against the 108th-ranked Croat, finding the lines with her powerful groundstrokes on both sides of the court.
Lucic-Baroni, 32, whose best performance at Wimbledon was a semi-final appearance 15 years ago, could not keep up, producing a string of errors in her attempts at winners.
Azarenka, letting rip her trademark wail of effort with every shot, had a characteristic lapse of concentration in the sixth game of the first set, dropping her serve with two double faults.
But breaks of the speedy Lucic-Baroni serve in the third, fifth and ninth games of the set saw her past the first hurdle.
The experienced Croat regained her composure in the second set, giving Azarenka a good baseline workout and exposing the rustiness of her opponent’s months out of the game.
The Belarusian, Australian Open champion in 2012 and 2013, vented her frustration, thumping her racket on the ground and admonishing herself for more double faults.
But, with iron will, she saved a string of set points in the second set and kept her cool when a sick ball girl had to be led from the court in the final game of the match.
Lucic-Baroni valiantly resisted match points on her own serve but eventually crumbled in the face of Azarenka’s power and resolve to send a ball long and concede the encounter in just over an hour and a half.
