With defending champion Serena Williams otherwise occupied and the ladies' No.1 seed Angelique Kerber struggling for form, could an outsider win the women’s title?
“Forty women could win Wimbledon,” according to the former men’s world No.4, Brad Gilbert. “The field, without a doubt, is the clear favourite on the women's side.”
Forty is a bit much, so we have narrowed the field down to just five dark horses.
Although this is her 11th appearance, Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam at which Wozniacki has yet to reach the last eight. But with Maria Sharapova absent and Petra Kvitova on the comeback trail, could this be Wozniacki’s year? Back in the top 10 after dropping out of the top 70 last year because of a knee injury, the former top-ranked Dane reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and followed that up by reaching a grass-court final at Eastbourne, where she lost in straight sets to Karolina Pliskova.
Seemingly coming out of nowhere, Ostapenko ripped an incredible 299 winners on the clay courts in Paris to win her maiden Grand Slam, just three days after her 20th birthday. A former ballroom dancer from Latvia, who used to be coached by her mother, Ostapenko’s aggressive game style was once described as “see ball, hit winner”. The 2014 junior Wimbledon champion certainly knows how to play on grass. But will she be able to reach the same heights as she did in Paris now that the world is watching?
A former world No.1 and two-time Grand Slam winner, this is Azarenka’s first major since giving birth to a baby boy, Leo, shortly before Christmas. His arrival has led to a change in her approach. “When I go out to practise, of course I practise there,” she said. “I'm present, but after that it's all about somebody else. It's not about me any more, which in tennis is a little bit tricky.” Although she won just one match on grass before Wimbledon, at the Mallorca Open, Azarenka is a two-time semi-finalist at the All England Club and, with some of the biggest names missing this year, she will surely fancy her chances.
Although the 23-year-old Canadian has yet to regain the form of her breakthrough 2014 season, when she followed up semi-final spots in Melbourne and Paris with a Wimbledon final, she remains capable of pulling off a huge upset. Her three-set win over Sharapova on the clay of Madrid in May was one of the best matches of the season. Reunited with her former coach, Thomas Hogstedt, Bouchard will be keen to improve on a 2-2 record at the All England Club since losing to Kvitova in the 2014 final.
A tall American with a booming serve, Vandeweghe split from her coach, Craig Kardon, just before Wimbledon and is now working with the 1987 men’s champion, Pat Cash. A quarter-finalist in 2015, Vandeweghe has the game to win the title one day but has lacked consistency. "I've always believed that I can win a Grand Slam, and I've also believed I can be No.1 in the world - those have been my dreams since I started playing,” Vandeweghe said after hiring the Australian. “To have a coach behind you that believes the same, that's great as it means that you have a coach who has the same drive and who wants to reach the same goals as you.” It is 30 years since Cash famously climbed into the stands of Centre Court to celebrate his win with his friends and family. Could we see Vandeweghe do the same in two weeks’ time?
Follow the latest news and scores from Wimbledon 2017 on Wimbledon.com or Apple TV, or download the official IOS or Android apps for smartphone and tablet.
