LONDON: If any more proof was needed of the depth in women’s tennis 50 years after the formation of the WTA then the complexity of trying to pick a winner for this year’s Wimbledon illustrates it perfectly.
Heading into the fortnight on the All England Club lawns, Polish world number one Iga Swiatek leads a clear ‘Big Three’ comprising of Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka and Kazakhstan’s Moscow-born reigning champion Elena Rybakina.
Since the retirement of then world number one Ash Barty, that trio have dominated the last five Grand Slams with Swiatek winning three and Rybakina and Sabalenka one apiece.
Suggesting one of the trio will hold aloft the trophy is hardly radical, yet it would also be no real surprise if a new name burst from the pack or one of the older generation such as twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova revived past glories.
Swiatek will start as the favourite. The 22-year-old claimed her third French Open title earlier this month and also underlined her hardcourt credentials by winning last year’s US Open.
Her all-court game, combined with her mental strength suggest she will stand the test of time rather better than some previous players who briefly threatened to dominate. Yet she is still to master the finer details of grasscourt tennis and her best Wimbledon run was the last 16 in 2021.
“I think she can’t really at this point feel super confident on the grass. I think she feels confident,” three-time Wimbledon champion Chris Evert said while previewing the tournament for ESPN this week. “She’s number one in the world, the best player in the world, but this surface may take away a little bit of her strength.”
Ace server
Rybakina, who stunned Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in last year’s final, has some worries over her health and fitness having pulled out of the French Open and this week’s Eastbourne championships, but her game is perfect for grass.
A clean hitter off both wings, Rybakina packs a powerful weapon on serve, racking up a Tour-leading 316 aces this season.
Australian Open champion Sabalenka reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2021 but was banned last year along with other players from Belarus and Russia because of the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a ‘special military operation’.
She had an uncomfortable time at the French Open despite reaching the semi-finals, finding herself at the centre of questions about her country’s role as Russia’s ally in the Ukraine conflict.
The 25-year-old will hope that her power tennis can become the main topic of conversation in London.
American teenager Coco Gauff, seeded seven, will be seeking to better her previous runs to the last 16 at Wimbledon in 2019 and 2021, while north African trailblazer Jabeur’s mercurial game should give her another tilt at the title.
Former world number one Victoria Azarenka, 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Pliskova are all amongst the top 20 seeds. But one name, that of Kvitova, really stands out.
The 33-year-old Czech left-hander is enjoying a vintage year, winning the Miami title and last week sweeping to the grasscourt title in Berlin, the 31st title of her career.
If ninth-ranked Kvitova gets on a roll a dream third Wimbledon title cannot be ruled out.
“There’s a lot of pressure over there. I’m going to try to enjoy it.
If I play good tennis, who knows what can happen,“ Kvitova said after her Berlin triumph.
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