Wimbledon braced for new women’s shock

London, July 2

With Serena Williams preparing for the birth of her first child and Maria Sharapova sidelined by a thigh injury, the race to be crowned Wimbledon champion is the most wide-open in a generation.

Having stepped away from the court as she waits to become a mother in September, Williams, who won Wimbledon in 2015 and 2016, has created a power vacuum at the top that Sharapova was expected to fill when the Russian returned from her doping suspension.

Instead, Sharapova lasted just three tournaments before a muscle injury in Rome forced the five-time Major winner to withdraw from the Wimbledon qualifying tournament.

In the absence of American great Williams, who has 23 Grand Slam titles on her CV, and the headline-grabbing Sharapova, women’s tennis has an undeniable lack of star power heading into Wimbledon, which gets underway on Monday.

But the flip-side is the opportunity for the sport’s less heralded names to seize the spotlight, as Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko showed with her unexpected breakthrough triumph at the French Open.

“Of course, it’s different if Serena is not here. Everything is possible,” world No. 1 Angelique Kerber said.

“There are so many good players right now, they can win the big tournaments.” 

Ostapenko has to prove that stunning success was more than a flash in the pan. 

A junior Wimbledon champion in 2014, Ostapenko’s game is well suited for the low-bouncing lawns of the All England Club, now that she has learned to enjoy a surface she once thought was only “for soccer”.

While Ostapenko arrived in London on a wave of post-Paris euphoria, second seed Halep is still struggling to come to terms with her failure to win her first Grand Slam. Three games away from the title and the world No. 1 ranking, Halep crumbled to her second Major final defeat — the other coming at the 2014 French Open.

The 25-year-old Romanian has never been past the semifinals at Wimbledon.

Kerber needs to improve dramatically after making unwanted history when her defeat against Ekaterina Makarova made her the first top-ranked woman in the Open era to fall in the opening round at Roland Garros. Beaten by Serena in the Wimbledon final 12 months ago, Kerber has yet to claim a singles WTA title in 2017. — AFP