By Shrivathsa Sridhar
BENGALURU (Reuters) -The Wimbledon women’s throne has turned into tennis’ version of musical chairs with new champions in the last seven years and all signs point to another one as Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff resume their simmering rivalry on the pristine lawns of London.
The All England Club has not crowned a repeat champion since 2016 when Serena Williams captured the 22nd of her 23 Grand Slam trophies and the chances of injury-hit holder Barbora Krejcikova rediscovering her miraculous level from 12 months ago are slim.
Elena Rybakina and Marketa Vondrousova, whose names precede Krejcikova on the iconic honours board, remain dangerous players on the sport’s fastest surface but all eyes will be on the women who contested an error-strewn but enthralling French Open final.
American Gauff prevailed in this month’s Roland Garros title clash against Belarusian Sabalenka and the 21-year-old will head to the venue of her breakthrough as a teenager in 2019 eager to finally conquer grass after claycourt and hardcourt success.
Gauff did not enjoy a good start to the grass swing after suffering a stunning second-round loss to Wang Xinyu in Berlin, but former Wimbledon quarter-finalist CoCo Vandeweghe said the two-time major champion will learn from the experience.
“I don’t think this shakes her confidence,” Vandeweghe told the Tennis Channel.
“This isn’t going to be her best surface, but you know what she’s going to do? She’s going to take this loss and really work on herself. That’s what we’ve seen time and time again from Gauff. She’s the ultimate competitor.
“That’s what we always see from Coco, as much as we talk about the negative aspects of what goes wrong in her game, what we don’t talk about enough is what goes right.”
POINT TO PROVE
Sabalenka, who was beaten by Gauff in another long final at the U.S. Open two years ago, will also have a point to prove in London with the three-time major winner looking to make up for lost time after missing last year’s Wimbledon with injury.
Since then she has contested three successive Grand Slam finals, triumphing in New York last September but failing to add to her major trophy haul with runner-up finishes in Melbourne and Paris.
Despite being one of the most consistent players over the last two years, marked by a rise to the top spot in the world rankings, Sabalenka has yet to solve the puzzle that grass poses having lost both of her finals on the surface.
The 27-year-old reached the Berlin semi-finals before crashing to eventual champion Vondrousova and will be eager to quickly rediscover the form that can devastate her opponents.
“The grass season is a short one, only a few tournaments before Wimbledon,” Sabalenka said after beating Rybakina in the Berlin quarter-finals.
“I wanted to play some matches, I wanted to remember how to play on grass and I’m happy I got what I did.”
Madison Keys became the latest entrant into the Grand Slam champions’ club with an inspired run to the Australian Open title earlier this year and the stage is set for the big-hitting American to prove she is no one-hit wonder.
Vondrousova will have a similar mindset after the former world number six, ranked 164 at the start of the Berlin tune-up event, became the lowest-ranked champion in the tournament’s history after dismantling Keys and Sabalenka along the way.
Iga Swiatek will also hope for the rub of the green after a torrid spell following her short ban for a doping violation last year as she looks to go past the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for the first time and add to her collection of five major titles.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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