Will Johanna Konta recover from her Wimbledon loss? Can Simona Halep thrive under pressure? And how will the returning Maria Sharapova leave her mark?Karolina Pliskova: Last year’s beaten finalist probably had different visions of how she would become the new world No1. She was on holiday in Monaco when it happened and only found out about her new status after checking to see if Simona Halep had won her Wimbledon quarter-final against Johanna Konta. Halep’s defeat confirmed Pliskova’s ascent – five days after losing in the second round at SW19. The circumstances weren’t ideal, feeding the theory that Pliskova is merely a lucky beneficiary of Serena Williams’s absence, but despite lukewarm recent form, the big-serving 25-year-old has a good chance...
The American is enjoying one of her best seasons at an age when most players have retired. How has she come back from injuries and an auto immune disease?It is hard to underestimate someone with seven grand slam and 49 WTA singles titles. But despite this, Venus Williams’ remarkable run at Wimbledon is a surprise not just because of her age – at 37 Williams was the oldest finalist since Martina Navratilova – but because her battle with a chronic health condition nearly forced her out of tennis.Diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease whose symptoms include joint pain and fatigue, Williams has struggled in the demanding two week grand slam events since her diagnosis, pulling out of the 2011...
When the Spaniard found her rhythm against Venus Williams she raced away to add her name to the champions’ board that has been inspiring herThroughout this Wimbledon Garbiñe Muguruza has paused at the Centre Court honours board, immersing herself in the legendary names of the past before willing herself to join them. On Saturday afternoon she got her chance – and, with a performance of stunning clarity and brutal unsentimentality, she took it. Now, following her 7-5, 6-0 victory over the five-times champion Venus Williams, her name, too, is etched in gold.The 23-year-old Spaniard’s talent has never been in question but she has always blown hotter and colder than most. This fortnight, however, those tennis winds must have come from...
History tends to forget that Britain’s last victor in the Wimbledon women’s tournament lost her first two semi-finalsFirst you have to suffer. The unspoken rule for any British hopeful striving to scratch the nation’s itch at Wimbledon is that the journey is never complete until they have dragged themselves off a deflated Centre Court at the end of their semi-final debut with sympathetic applause ringing in their ears, their bottom lip quivering and that lump in their throat threatening to spill on to the grass, guilty only of daring to think it would be different this time. Related: Venus Williams into Wimbledon final with smooth defeat of Johanna Konta Related: Johanna Konta: quiet Sydney schoolgirl always had focus of a...
Win or lose against Venus Williams in the Wimbledon semi-finals a fine mid-twenties British talent has begun to hit the grooveThe relationship between player and crowd at Wimbledon tends to be pegged out around great matches, an accumulated muscle memory of successive oddly intimate moments of extreme competition down the years. Johanna Konta’s gripping quarter-final defeat of Simona Halep looks like being the latest example of this process in action.Both women played to the outer reaches of their capacity over three high-grade sets. Centre Court quivered and moaned in the way no other sporting crowd ever really quivers and moans. In victory Konta threw another grappling hook across the divide from late-blooming high-class hopeful to slams contender. Plus she added another...