The grass-court season is a curious fixture on the tennis calendar. For two weeks following the French Open and a host of top class clay-court tournaments leading into the Paris Grand Slam, top players switch their game to the vagaries of grass.
While forgiving underfoot, the ball bounces low on grass, points are shorter, faster and sometimes erratic. Traditionally, those who could follow up a big serve with some sharp volleys – think Pete Sampras, Boom Boom Becker, Martina Navratilova, Patrick Rafter – prospered while players who liked to hang behind the baseline clutching a western grip struggled to dominate on the surface.
“You can’t open the court up on grass,” says David Taylor, coach of Australian No.1 and world ranked No.7 Samantha Stosur. “It’s a novelty surface and with a two-week season, your game has to be conducive to grass to do well. You’ve got to be able to put the ball in a spot where your opponent can’t help you.”
With her booming, spinning serve, Stosur has had a better lead-in to Wimbledon reaching (at the time of writing), the semi-finals at Eastbourne where her conqueror in the Roland Garros final, Francesca Schiavone, was eliminated in the first round to Sorana Cirstea.
Stosur is seeded No.6 at Wimbledon, while Serena and Venus Williams are placed at No.1 and 2 respectively. The American siblings have taken home the prize at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in eight of the last 10 years, with Venus claiming five of those years. Defending champion Serena lost the crown in 2008 to Venus and took it away from her sister 12 months ago.
Beaten at the quarterfinal market in Paris by Stosur, Serena will be keen to build on her current 12-Slam tally, the last achieved in Melbourne in January.
The women’s field is as open as ever, with neither third seed Caroline Wozniacki, No.4 Jelena Jankovic or No.5 Schiavone impressing so far on grass. Returning to the game after a seven week break, Belgian Kim Clijsters was in blistering form at Eastbourne until she ran into red hot Belarussian Victoria Azarenka over night, beaten 7-6 6-4.
Clijsters has twice been a semifinalist at Wimbledon (2006 and 2003), but recent experience might rattle her. Once again, while still in a ‘transition’ phase, diminutive Justine Henin is seeded No.17 and no one would be surprised to see her go all the way over the next fortnight. She has twice been a runner-up at Wimbledon and three times a semi-finalist. Now through to the semi-finals at the lead-in at 's-Hertogenbosch, she is closing in on another Grand Slam title to add to her pre-retirement tally of seven majors dating back to 2007.
And it would be folly to go past 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, who lost the final two weeks’ ago in Birmingham to Na Li and has spent the interim fine-tuning her game. The glamorous Russian comes in as the No.16 seed.
The men’s event is also an open slate, with French Open champion Rafael Nadal beaten early at Queen’s Club by good friend Feliciano Lopez.
Having skipped last year (as the defending champion) with injury, Rafa has set his sights on reclaiming the title from six-times champion Roger Federer.
But is Roger the man to beat? The AELTC has deemed the Swiss worthy of the No.1 ranking, despite his official world ranking of No.2. What to make of his finals loss though at Halle last week, when he was beaten for the first time in 16 meetings by Australian Lleyton Hewitt? Ranked No.26 on the ATP world rankings, Hewitt has been elevated to No.15 at Wimbledon in recognition of his pedigree on the surface, having won the Championships in 2002.
Last year’s finalist, Andy Roddick, could easily arrive in his fourth Wimbledon final while local expectations will again centre around Andy Murray, who fell in the semis last year to Roddick.
Since losing to Federer in the Australian Open final in January, Murray has hit a flat spot and lost in the second round at Queen’s to American Mardy Fish. My tennis is there. I just need to make sure I find it in time for Wimbledon," he said. "That's where it's most important for me to play well."
As dark horses go, Fish will be swimming downstream with fellow American Sam Querrey, the titleholder at Queen’s, while Frenchman Richard Gasquet is regarded as a dangerous floater.
For more analysis, check out our Wimbledon video preview featuring former Sam Stosur coach, Craig Morris.
Wimbledon seedings
