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Saturday Wimbledon Womens Preview
Posted on June 30, 2007
LONDON, Great Britain -- The final eight places in the round of 16 at Wimbledon are up for grabs on Saturday and the past three champions at the All-England Club will be among the players competing for them. Amelie Mauresmo and Maria Sharapova will grace Centre Court and Court 1 respectively, while over on Court 2 Venus Williams will try to ensure her campaign does not end before the start of the second week for the second successive year.
Centre Court
(4) Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) vs. (28) Mara Santangelo (ITA) -- Mauresmo leads, 2-0
Little more than a week has passed since Mauresmo and Santangelo last clashed on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, but despite running out a comfortable winner in Eastbourne nine days ago, the Frenchwoman will not be taking Saturday's match on Centre Court lightly. Santangelo has an attacking style tailor-made for grass court tennis and with the 26-year-old Italian currently sitting at her highest ever world ranking of No.29, she will certainly not be short on confidence when she comes up against the No.4 seed. Mauresmo has made premature exits from the year's first two majors, but this fact has not stopped the 27-year-old from playing some mercurial tennis in her opening two matches at The Championships and Santangelo will need to conjure up a truly special performance of she is to end the world No.4's reign as champion.
Court 1
(2) Maria Sharapova (RUS) vs. (26) Ai Sugiyama (JPN) -- Sharapova leads, 2-0
Since her return to the Tour -- after a seven week lay-off due to shoulder and hamstring injuries -- at the end of May Sharapova has been in tremendous form, making her first ever semifinal appearance at Roland Garros before achieving a runner-up finish at the Wimbledon tune-up event in Birmingham. The 20-year-old Russian has carried this form into The Championships, racing through her first two matches and producing the type of tennis which helped her capture the Venus Rosewater Dish back in 2004. Sharapova has never failed to make the fourth round at the All-England Club and if she is to maintain this record she will need to see off experienced campaigner Ai Sugiyama. The 31-year-old from Japan was Sharapova's quarterfinal victim en route to the title three years ago and although Sugiyama has struggled for consistency on Tour this season, she has pushed the Russian to three sets in both their previous meetings and will provide a stern test out on Court 1.
Court 2
(23) Venus Williams (USA) vs. Akiko Morigami (JPN) -- Williams leads, 1-0
Three-time Wimbledon champion, Williams, has struggled with injuries and inconsistency in 2007, but her second-round destruction of Czech qualifier Hana Sromova suggested the world No.31 is returning to the form which has brought her so much success on the lawns of south-west London. Williams' start to the season was marred by a left wrist injury and although the American marked her return to the Tour in February by capturing the Tier III title in Memphis, she has made it beyond the quarterfinals on just one occasion in the subsequent four months. Japanese No.2 Morigami has had a similarly inconsistent year, capturing her maiden Tour title during the clay court swing in Fes, but also falling to eight first-round losses -- including a three-set defeat to Williams in Memphis. However, the world No.71 has yet to drop a set at this year's tournament and will hope to continue this form when she takes on her fellow 27-year-old out on Court 2.
(5) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) vs. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) -- First Meeting
Polish teenage sensation, Radwanska, was one of the surprise packages of Wimbledon 2006, reaching the fourth round on her senior debut at the All-England Club. The 18-year-old from Krakow certainly seems to enjoy playing at the prestigious grass court tournament; she picked up the junior title two years ago and has dropped just four games en route to the third round this year. Standing in between her and second consecutive fourth-round berth is the imposing figure of world No.5 Kuznetsova. The 21-year-old from St. Petersburg has enjoyed an impressive season to date, achieving runner-up finishes in four events, but she looked out of sorts in the first two rounds and she will need to improve on those performances if she is to avoid becoming the third Top 10 seed to exit the tournament.
Court 13
(6) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) vs. Aravane Rezai (FRA) -- First Meeting
Two of the purest strikers of a tennis ball on Tour will go head to head in Saturday's first match on Court 13, as the ever-improving Serbian Ivanovic faces the gifted Frenchwoman Rezai. Ivanovic will be bidding to make it through to the fourth round for the second year in succession and few would bet against her after the first half of the year the world No.6 has enjoyed. After a quietly impressive opening few months of 2007, Ivanovic's season really sparked into life during the European clay court swing. The 19-year-old captured her second ever Tier I title in Berlin, before storming through to her maiden Grand Slam final at Roland Garros -- eventually falling to Justine Henin. Prior to this week Rezai had never won a Tour match on grass, but the 20-year old from St. Etienne's confidence will have been boosted by her fine second-round win over No.29 seed Francesca Schiavone and she undoubtedly has the ability to cause an upset - as she demonstrated when she defeated Sharapova and Williams on her way to her first career final last month in Strasbourg.
More to watch...
Saturday's play at SW19 will be a showcase for the young talent on the Tour, with no less than five teenagers in action. Court 18 will play host to the round's only exclusive teenage affair as the Czech Republic's two-time Grand Slam semifinalist and No.14 seed Nicole Vaidisova takes on emerging Belarusian talent Victoria Azarenka. Over on Court 3, No.12 seed and last year's quarterfinalist Elena Dementieva will do battle with the youngest player left in the draw, Austrian 16-year-old, Tamira Paszek. The final third-round match of the day will see Dementieva's fellow Russian and the tournament's No.11 seed, Nadia Petrova, go head to head with experienced Spanish campaigner Virginia Ruano Pascual.
-- Courtesy WTA Tour
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