Vera Zvonareva, Francesca Schiavone to open campaign on Monday – Wimbledon Championships 2011
All-prestigious Grand Slam tournament, the Wimbledon Championships, will take off on Monday, with the world number three, Vera Zvonareva of Russia featuring the opening round match against Alison Riske of the United States. The
contest will be held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, England, with the Russian being the hot favourite for winning the contest.
26-year-old Zvonareva has been in a brilliant form this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) season and her recent performances with the racquet make him one of the strongest contenders for the Grand Slam title. The Russian had a successful
French Open campaign two weeks ago, when she reached the fourth round of the Grand Slam event, being defeated after a tough fight against her fellow compatriot, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Zvonareva has already won 30 out of 41 singles matches she played this year, which include a WTA championship victory as well. The Russian was the finalist at Wimbledon last year but was unfortunately defeated by Serena Williams
to fritter away the opportunity to grab a Grand Slam trophy. Zvonareva will certainly desire to put up a better effort this time round and she will be taking off her campaign in the match against a bleak competitor like Riske.
The American contestant has the world ranking of 115, which makes her a mismatch for the world number three Zvonareva in the competition. Riske is yet to win a WTA singles title in her career and has won 18 out of 33 matches she
featured this year. It appears to be a difficult task for the American to take down an established player like Zvonareva in the Monday’s matchup but the Russian has been in a habit of losing focus between the contests, allowing opportunities to her competitors
to get on top of her.
The French Open finalist this year, Francesca Schiavone of Italy, will also play her opening round match on Monday afternoon against the unseeded Australian, Jelena Dokic. Schiavone suffered a championship defeat at the hands of
Li Na of China, in the final of Roland Garros two weeks ago and is certainly the hungriest player for a Grand Slam title.
The world number seven will take on the 45th ranked Dokic, someone she has never defeated on three occurrences. The Australian has been victorious against Schiavone in all the three prior meetings, the most recent been
earlier this year at Kuala Lumpur and she leads the head-to-head series against her by 3-0.
Although Schiavone has never defeated Dokic before, her current form provides her the excellent opportunity to beat all the odds and run through the Aussie this time round. The Italian defeated a number of top class contestants
en route to the French Open final and her confidence will be sky high while stepping into the contest against Dokic.
Dokic lost in the final of the UNICEF Open against Roberta Vinci a day ago and is in a very good form to take on the sixth seed Italian. It is hard to predict the winner of the match but with the past victories over Schiavone,
Dokic has the psychological advantage over the Italian.
Tags: