Serena Williams: Ranked 1,204th in the world without a competitive singles match in 12 months, Serena Williams will enter Wimbledon, her biggest ever.
Serena Williams: The seven-time champion at the All England Club will also chase a record equaling 24th Grand Slam title. Rarely has there been a pile-up like this against the great American who became the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon. With her 41st birthday only three months away, Williams hasn’t played a single tie on the tour, tearing away from Wimbledon in the first round against Aliksandra Sasnovi in 2021.
“I hope I won’t be the last player to beat him at Wimbledon,” Sasnovich told AFP at last month’s French Open. “He’s a great champion and I want to see him back.” Sasnovich may not be at the All England Club because of the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, but at least he has the desire to return to Williams. The American star has been hopelessly disappointed at 23 Slams since winning her seventh Australian Open while pregnant in 2017.
Serena Williams: She was runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2018 and 2019 as Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 majors remained out of touch.
‘Doubt I’d return? Absolutely’
“Did I ever doubt I’d be back? It felt good but I always try to be semi-fit because you never know when you’ll be at Wimbledon,” Williams said on Tuesday after her win on the court in doubles at Eastbourne. Going to play.” Williams remains the last woman to successfully defend the Wimbledon title in 2016. When she played her first Wimbledon in 1998, current world number one Inga Swietec was just three years away from being born.
‘Something special’
The 21-year-old Pole reached the tournament with a second French Open title and a 35-match winning streak. This equaled Venus Williams’ 35 consecutive victories in 2000, the longest by a woman in the 21st century. It also improved Serena’s score of 34. “After that 35th win and doing a little more than Serena, it’s something special,” Sweetek said.
Wimbledon will test her ability to continue the race where last year’s fourth round was her best, although she was junior champion in 2018. “The grass is always tough. I really like the part I don’t expect. It’s something like this. Fresh,” she said.
The women’s draw opens with defending champion Ashleigh Barty retiring earlier this year. Four-time major winner Naomi Osaka, rarely a serious threat on the grass, has backed down from an Achilles injury. The Japanese star, the world’s highest-paid player, had already objected to participating in it. He feared that Wimbledon’s status as an exhibition tournament had been reduced to an exhibition tournament after the ATP and WTA took away ranking points.
This was in response to a ban imposed on Russian and Belarusian players following the invasion of Ukraine. So three of the top 20 women will miss Wimbledon – last year’s semifinalist Aryna Sabalenka, 2018 quarterfinalist Daria Kasatkina and 2011 and 2012 semifinalist Victoria Azarenka. None of the top five have ever reached the semi-finals.
Ons Jabur reached the last-eight in 2021, Paula Badosa, like Sweetek, is yet to advance through the fourth round.
