From Wimbledon —
1st QUARTER
The No. 1 Angie Kerber can play great at the Slams, but this year, she has fallen down — again. The German is struggling big time, and in the next month, she will be out of No. 1. Last year at Wimbledon, Kerber reached the final, cracking the ball and moving super fast (she lost in the final against Serena Williams, who is not playing the rest of the year), but now, as she has said, she is mentally out of it. So the German will lose pretty early, this week, likely against the good veteran Lucie Safarova in the third round.
After that, who can reach the semis? Maybe Garbine Muguruza, who looked pretty good at Roland Garros last month, but she still doesn’t love grass.
Aga Radwanska is another one: she has reached the final at Wimby a few years back and she was close to winning the title, but this season, she has done nothing. However, Aga has been injured a lot (isn’t everyone?), but perhaps she knows she has a real shot to finally win the trophy. She is super smart, but she can get frustrated. This time, though, she will shake her head and get on with it. She will reach the semis, unless the American Laura Davis can dominate her backhand.
2nd QUARTER
Here comes Karolina Pliskova once again, who should be No. 1 fairly soon. However, she has yet to win a major yet, so if she wants to become No. 1, she has to push herself— very hard. Pliskova is incredibly powerful, her serve is ballistic and she can touch the lines either way. Her confidence is rising every day, so she should be able to run to the semis.
She should out-hit Daria Gavrilova in the third round, and in the fourth round, she will face Caroline Wozniacki (who she just beat her in the final of Eastbourne), the Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic, or the American CoCo Vandeweghe. Mladenovic is getting substantially better, so she will lock heads with Pliskova in the quarters. It should be a terrific contest, but once again, the Czech will crack her forehand and reach the semis. Pliskova is ready to dance.
3rd QUARTER
This area is very difficult to match. There are some terrific competitors, but on grass, only Venus Williams has won five times at Wimbledon, and right now, the 36-year-old is very depressed. News came out last week about the death of a passenger in a car she hit in Florida. So Venus will be thinking about it every second for a long, long time.
Elina Svitolina is favored to reach the semis, but she has to shorten points and rip her forehand. She has become much better at understanding her game and how to adjust to it. She should reach the 4th round and then she will have to go against the new Slam champion Jelena Ostapenko, or the American Madison Keys. Ostapenko is on fire, and she absolutely crushes the ball on clay, on hard courts and on grass. She will overcome Keys, who is hurt constantly. Ostapenko will jump over Svitolina, assuming that the young and very good player Ana Konjuh, will rise up.
But it has to be the 20-year-old Ostapenko, who will reach the semis, assuming that she can keep her head in the game.
4TH QUARTER
We all know that Petra Kvitova loves Wimbledon, winning it twice. Her first serve twists around, and both her forehand and her backhand is heavy and murderous. Over the years, she can be upset when she is not playing badly, but when she thinks on court, she begins to change, her confidence returns and she beings to smoke the ball.
Kvitova won a tournament last week and while she was out for six months, she knew exactly what she had to do. Now, she is one of the favorites once again. She is thrilled to be back.
However, it won’t be easy here. Kvitova should be fine in the first week, but after that, the tough competitors will be right there. She might have to play against Brit Jo Konta, which would be spectacular. But Konta is injured and she may not be able to reach the second week. Plus, she has never won a big matches at Wimbledon before. Konta is very driven, but on grass, she isn’t patient enough.
Kvitova will take her out and in the quarters, she will have to play against Simona Halep, Elena Vesnina, or believe it or not, Genie Bouchard. Halep is mentally in and out, Vesnina has become more real on singles, and the Canadian has gone deep here three years ago, but Bouchard is totally unpredictable. Regardless who she will play, Kvitova will reach the semis. Her potentially third Wimbledon championship is sitting right there for her.
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