Serena Williams Faces Vera Zvonareva in the ladies Wimbledon Final 2010
The Williams are out in the Ladies’ Doubles, but Serena has one last chance to avenge her defeat in the Wimbledon’s Championships. The sisters lost to the Russian team, Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva. The two were nicknamed the “Cinderellas” of tennis after their victory, which Zvonareva described as "truly like a dream to me."
It has most likely been a nightmare for the American sisters, but especially for Venus, who was eliminated during the Singles quarter-finals due to her quite deplorable performance. During the match against the two Russians, Serena appeared to not be injured, but still had some tape on her right shoulder. Venus avoided the post-match interview after their defeat. This was the first match the sisters had lost this season-- including the entire Doubles tournament--and it was quite a shock for them and their supporters.
After defeating Tsvetana Pironkova in the Singles semi-finals, Zvonareva will now be facing Serena Williams again, only this time for the Singles’ cup.
Zvonareva improved her game play in many ways for this year’s tournament, including her temper. She was known more in 2004 for her emotional displays on the court, than for reaching the top ten. She was often seen throwing her racket when missing points, and breaking down into tears in the middle of a match.
The 25 year-old Russian showed up to the Championships with more reserve this year and the ability to keep her feelings under a minimum of control. Zvonareva was also recovering from a serious wrist injury after reaching the top five in February 2009. The problems then struck again, only this time with an ankle injury while performing in Charleston in April 2009. The resulting surgery cut her season short, forcing her to withdraw from last year’s Wimbledon, and left her unable to return with her full strength on the court. These injuries affected Zvonareva’s confidence, which began to shrink with time, and caused her emotions to run wild again and again.
The recovery was not so simple, admitted Zvonareva to the press. "You always dream about it," the Russian said. "You always want to be there. I always believe in myself and believe I can be here. But when you go through a lot of injuries in your career, it puts a lot of doubts in your head. It is very difficult to come back. You lose a lot of confidence. I always believed I could do it. I was just frustrated that my injuries were not going away. But I knew it was just a matter of time, because I can work hard every day. I believe that if you do that, you will achieve."
The young Russian was ranked World No. 21 at the beginning of the tournament, but reached No. 11 after defeating Tsvetana Pironkova in the semi-finals.
Serena will be defending her title against the Russian, and is expected to do so easily. Williams’ profile is of course one of the most impressive in female tennis. She has won 26 Grand Slam titles, ranking her ninth place on the all-time list with 12 in singles, 12 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. The youngest of the Williams sisters has also won three Wimbledon trophies and reached two other finals in the last ten years. She is also the Wimbledon, Australian, French, and U.S. Open champion this year. Among men and women, she is the most recent player to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles at the same time and is the fifth woman in tennis history to accomplish it.
However, Serena not only has her eyes on the trophy; she also has them on the victory that would avenge her sister’s exit from the entire tournament, and her own from the doubles.
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