Wimbledon 06: Ladies' Singles Preview

Ladies' Singles Draw



Venus Williams, defending her Wimbledon crown for the third time, can expect to face top seed Amelie Mauresmo of France in the quarter-final round of the 2006 Championships.

Sixth seeded Williams, whose experience at Wimbledon includes winning finals in 2000, 2001 and 2005, as well as twice being a runner-up to sister Serena in 2002 and 2003, may need to call on all her history of success on the All England Club courts to take on Mauresmo, the reigning Australian Open champion, who so far has been no further than three semi-finals at Wimbledon.

Mauresmo starts Wimbledon as favourite for the first time against qualifier Ivana Abramovic of Croatia, and could be playing fellow French player Tatiana Golovin in the third round, followed by the 14th seeded Dinara Safina of Russia in the last sixteen.

Williams begins against fellow American Bethanie Mattek and is due to take on Anastasia Myskina of Russia in the fourth round. Myskina, a quarter-finalist for the first time last year, has been no further than the last sixteen in both the Australian and French championships this year.

Of the three women who have won Grand Slam titles since Wimbledon last year, second seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium has by far the hardest start against Vera Zvonareva of Russia, ranked 47th, who underlined her form on grass by coming through the field at Birmingham last week to lift the title over Jamea Jackson in the final.

Providing Clijsters can pass that first test she should be heading for a quarter-final against another Russian, seventh seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova who was runner-up in the French Open final to Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Third seed Henin-Hardenne, also runner-up in the Australian Open this year where she was forced to retire in the final, opens against 99th ranked Meng Yuan of China and should then head to the quarter-finals against eighth seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.

But Schnyder faces a fourth round match against her fellow Swiss player Martina Hingis, the youngest champion of Wimbledon in 1997, who is back in the Championships for the first time since 2001. Hingis, seeded twelfth, begins against Olga Savchuk of the Ukraine.

Maria Sharapova, the third former champion in the draw, begins against Anna Smashnova of Israel who suffered first round defeats in the Australian and French Opens this year. Sharapova, a semi-finalist in the Australian and a fourth round loser in the French, should face seventh seed Elena Dementieva of Russia in the quarter-finals.

Wimbledon's semi-final line-up is seeded to be Mauresmo against Sharapova and Henin-Hardenne against Clijsters. Whether that happens in reality depends on who can set the pace and find form in the early rounds. Hingis lurks as an intriguing opponent for Henin-Hardenne while Clijsters, the US Open champion, will have to carve out her career-best Wimbledon to reach the final.

Britain has five players in the ladies' singles. Anne Keothavong, the highest ranked at 143rd in the world, begins against Karolina Sprem of Croatia. Katie O'Brien faces Tathiana Garbin of Italy. Naomi Cavaday plays 18th seed Ai Sugiyama of Japan, Sarah Borwell is matched against Marta Domachowska of Poland, and Melanie South takes on the 11th seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

Written by Barry Newcombe


Source: Wimbledon Offical WebSite