Wimbledon: Women's Preview

Here are some of last year's results to jog your memory as I look at the women's tournament at the All England Club:


Champion - Serena Williams (USA)
Runner Up - Venus Williams (USA)
Semifinalists - Dinara Safina (RUS), Elena Dementieva (RUS)
Quarterfinalists - Agnieszka Radwanska (POL), Victoria Azarenka (BLR), Sabine Lisicki (GER), Francesca Schiavone (ITA)
Now without further ado, my thoughts:

Possible Champions: Serena Williams (USA), Venus Williams (USA).  Even though the three biggest women's tournaments of the past couple months were are ranked outside the top 15 (Martinez Sanchez at Rome, Rezai at Madrid, and Schiavone at the French), I will surprised to see anyone other than a Williams in the final.  This is their event.
Players who could go deep and hope the Williams get injured: Maria Sharapova (RUS), Samantha Stosur (AUS), but who really else?  I personally won't count Schiavone and its really too bad Dementieva had to withdraw.
Former champions in the draw: Only 3, V.Williams (2000-1,5,7-8), S.Williams (2002-3,9), Sharapova (2004)
Other slam winners in the draw: Clijsters, Henin, Ivanovic, Kuznetsova, and now Schiavone
Former girls champions in the draw: Dushevina (2002), Flipkens (2003), K.Bondarenko (2004), A.Radwanska (2005), Wozniacki (2006), U.Radwanska (2007), Robson (2008). Also Black (1997) and Srebotnik (1998) will be entered in doubles.  Better performance at the senior level than the boy's champions but still no slams among that group.  However, quite a few are potential slam winners so only time will tell.
Players who will really suffer in the rankings with early departures: Safina, Azarenka, Lisicki (if she's playing).  Also Melanie Oudin who made the 4th round a year ago really needs to have a good showing to be seeded for the US Open in a couple months.

Welcome to all of you who linked to my blog from Greg Garber's ESPN.com post.  If you have any suggestions for the content here, please leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.