As the second week of Wimbledon prepares to get underway, the women’s draw finds itself in uncharted waters but a familiar face could yet crown her greatest achievement, writes Paul Prenderville.
While a number of players around her have faltered, including nine of the top 10 seeds, one woman stands tall in the Wimbledon women’s event, the incomparable Serena Williams.
She spoke at length on Saturday about her status at the top of the women’s game and how she is always the women to beat – a question born out of Madison Keys’ admission that she lost her focus in defeat to Evgeniya Rodina because she was thinking about a showdown with Serena.
Williams starts the second week of Wimbledon as the dominant name and in any other year the overwhelming favourite for the title rather than just the favourite.
But this is her second Grand Slam since the birth of her daughter, who is not even a year old, and a more accurate question might be whether this would be her greatest achievement yet?
Serena’s comeback
The 36-year old has 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the fabled ‘Serena Slam’ of 2002-03 and seven previous Wimbledon crowns to her name and a place in history long since assured.
Having won her last Grand Slam title, the 2017 Australian Open, while roughly eight weeks pregnant, she is also pushing the physical boundaries to go with her numerical achievements and it is that which make a potential title at the All England Club noteworthy.
Daughter Alexis Olympia was born on September 1, 2017, and less than three months after giving birth, Williams was playing an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi before withdrawing from the Australian Open of 2018 over a lack of significant preparation time.
Williams’ remarkable interview with Vogue magazine in January saw her reveal that she had been bedridden for six weeks after giving birth with pregnancy-induced problems that meant she did not return until February and a doubles match with her sister at the Fed Cup.
Defeats at Indian Wells and Miami were understandable and she made her Grand Slam return at the French Open where she reached the fourth round and a showdown with Maria Sharapova that never materialised as Williams cited a pectoral injury for her withdrawal.
Having been unseeded in Paris, much fanfare awaited her fate at Wimbledon and she was subsequently seeded 25th given her history on the lush green lawns and so far has eased into the fourth round without dropping a set while the cream of the women’s game have fallen away above her.
Seeds scattered
For the first time in the Open era, nine of the top 10 seeds are out as the field has been decimated and all but one of the nine were beaten by unseeded opposition.
Four of the top 10 were beaten in the first round, including two-time champion Petra Kvitova and fourth seed Sloane Stephens, who was the first major exit, swiftly followed by Elina Svitolina and Caroline Garcia.
Johanna Konta may not have been a top 10 seed but she was ranked 22nd and a semi-finalist last year, however she was to bow out in the second round, sent packing by Dominika Cibulkova and the British No 1 was joined by two title contenders at the same stage
Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki was next to go, losing to unseeded Ekaterina Makarova in three sets and the same fate was to befall last year’s winner Garbine Muguruza who suffered the earliest exit of a defending champion since 1994.
The Spaniard was beaten by a spectacular display from Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck while 10th seed Madison Keys also fell at the third round stage, where ninth seed and five-time champion Venus Williams fell to an epic defeat at the hands of 20th seed Kiki Bertens.
With seven unseeded players remaining, the prospect of a first ever unseeded women’s champion remains high, but the story of the first week has been about the big names who have perished early and on Saturday the world No 1 joined them when Simona Halep was beaten by Su-Wei Hsieh.
Wimbledon Women’s Singles – Last 16
| Top Half | ||
| Su-Wei Hsieh (Tpe) | v | Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) |
| Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) (12) | v | Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Blr) |
| Alison Van Uytvanck (Bel) | v | Daria Kasatkina (Rus) (14) |
| Angelique Kerber (Ger) (11) | v | Belinda Bencic (Swi) |
| Bottom Half | ||
| Karolina Pliskova (Cze) (7) | v | Kiki Bertens (Ned) (20) |
| Julia Goerges (Ger) (13) | v | Donna Vekic (Cro) |
| Serena Williams (USA) (25) | v | Evgeniya Rodina (Rus) |
| Camila Giorgi (Ita) | v | Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) |
Who could stop Serena?
Despite the carnage of the opening week there are still some formidable players who will line up in the last 16 and to put a different spin on the seeded angle, seven of the top 16 are left standing!
In this year of maiden Grand Slam champions, Karolina Pliskova could finally join Halep and Wozniacki in ending their waits for one of the sport’s big four titles.
Pliskova, a former world no 1, the 2016 US Open runner-up only has one other Grand Slam semi-final to her name and until this week had not gone beyond the second round at Wimbledon.
A 10-time champion on the WTA tour, a Grand Slam title is long overdue and she remains the highest ranked player left in the competition
Angelique Kerber is a two-time Grand Slam champion, winning both the Australian and US Opens in 2016, the same year she lost to Williams in the Wimbledon final, so she has the experience and the game for grass
Perhaps the biggest threat is a couple of big hitting seeded youngsters who could dominate the game for years to come. Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and 20-year-old Naomi Osaka.
Twelfth seed Ostapenko claimed her first WTA level title by winning at Roland Garros last year and reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals a few weeks later while 18th seed Osaka has matched a career-best performance in the Slams by reaching the last 16.
And what chance of an unseeded champion for the first time? Donna Vekic and Belinda Bencic have been heralded as stars of the game but haven’t quite delivered while Cibulkova could deliver a delicious irony.
The Slovak only missed out on being seeded as a result of Williams’ elevation, and a title win would be quite the story, even more so if it came at Williams’ expense – but the American has a story of her own and it could be one for the ages.
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