This year history was made at Wimbledon. For the first time at a Grand Slam event, the top four seeds failed to reach the quarterfinals. I indicated in my tournament preview that the event is wide open, and it has been. However, as unexpected as it is to see the world number 133 (Jie Zheng) reach the semifinals, there is still an air of familiarity about the women’s championship.
The Williams sisters have moved comfortably through the draw and look likely to add to the final nine Wimbledon appearances they have made against each other this century. Few would bet against a repeat of her matches in 2002 and 2003, both of which Serena won.
I tipped the little sister to glory at odds of 5.2 (4/1) with Betfair at the start of the tournament and I stand by that prediction. She was in devastating form in her straight sets quarterfinal victory over Agnieszka Radwanska and she had never seen her so focused and determined to win. Her sister will have a hard time dealing with a service that sometimes seemed hopeless.
The family success of the Williams sisters at Wimbledon must be a frustrating phenomenon for the game’s elite players. They have recovered from what seemed like terminal declines in the rankings in 2006, but remain enigmatic figures who reserve their best performances for the grass courts of Wimbledon. Venus hasn’t won another Grand Slam since 2001.
They perform sporadically on tour and have suffered accusations of being part-time gamers, interested more in the world of fashion and other interests. However, the lack of preparation for Wimbledon does not hide their ability on their favorite surface and we should not see the success of the sisters at SW19 as a reflection of the mediocrity of the elite players.
Similarly, the talent pool is bigger than ever, making Grand Slam upsets more likely. There is a group of emerging players from Russia and Eastern Europe, including Radwanska, Agnes Szavay, Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze, who are already in the top 15 of the rankings and poised to make a big impact at major events.
Never before 2004 had there been a Russian woman Grand Slam winner, but there have been three since that breakthrough year (Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova). There could soon be a new name to add to that list, as Wimbledon fifth seed Elena Dementieva continues to reach the commercial end of the slams and there is a bevy of young Russian players breaking into the top 100.
