Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic play opening round matches on Monday – Wimbledon Championships 2011
Finally, the former world number one, Venus Williams will be seen back in action, when she will take on Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan in the opening round of the Wimbledon Championships on Monday. The third Grand Slam tournament
of the year will be played at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, England, with the former champion competing on the very first day of the mega event.
Venus has been out of the pro tennis circle after recovering from her injury, which sidelined him for the past five months. The American was struck by a hip muscle injury while playing her third round match against Andrea Petkovic
in the Australian Open, which ended her impressive record of playing the most number of consecutive matches (i.e. 250) in Grand Slam events without retiring.
Currently ranked at number 30 in the world, Venus missed Roland Garros for the reason of her injury and made her comeback at AEGON International last week since January. She struggled to get back her vintage form and got disposed
off in the quarter-final at the hands of Daniela Hantuchova.
Although Venus has been sidelined from professional tennis for a long time and appeared out-of-practice in her recent tournament, the American is still among the strongest contenders for the Grand Slam title. Venus has won Wimbledon
Championships five times, hinting how well she performs on the grass courts of London and she is still reckoned as the hot favourite for winning the title.
26-year-old Amanmuradova has played 17 matches in the running WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) season and has won only five out them, losing the rest of the 12 matches. Her form this year is still not good enough to take down Venus,
who is straining to get back her form. It is predicted that the Monday’s contest will be pretty one-sided, with Venus winning comprehensively against the 97th ranked Uzbek.
15th seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia will also feature in the opening day matches of Wimbledon on Monday, taking on Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain in the first round clash. The 76th ranked Spaniard has
been in an ordinary form this year but past record against Jankovic is very impressive. Sanchez has defeated the Serbian on two prior occasions and leads the all-time head-to-head series against Jankovic by 2-1.
Although there is a huge difference between the world rankings of the two contestants, the Spanish’s abilities are not to be underestimated. Sanchez has got all the abilities to take down any top class player on her day and it
could be on Monday afternoon when she will take on the world number 15, Jankovic, in the opening round matchup.
Jankovic is yet to win a singles title this year but has won 28 out of 41 matches she played in the current year. The Serb has never gone past the fourth round of Wimbledon and appears to lose her focus in the game in big matches
against accomplished players. She has lost to Sanchez twice but being the 15 seed, Jankovic will be confident while taking on the Spanish opponent on Monday afternoon.
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