2014 Wimbledon Tennis Ladies’ Championship
All-England Lawn Tennis and & Croquet Club – Wimbledon, England
Playing Surface: Grass
Monday, June 23-Saturday, July 5, 2014, TV: ESPN2, Tennis Channel
2013 Winner: Marion Bartoli
All Odds courtesy of 5Dimes Sportsbooks

The Wimbledon tennis championships start Monday at the All-England Club. Last year’s Ladies’ champion Marion Bartoli from France retired about a month after the tournament in 2013. There are still a ton of quality competitors which includes a good mix of experienced veterans and up and coming young stars.

Let’s take a look at the contenders and their odds to win both the tournament and their section of the draw (make the semifinals) with odds courtesy of 5Dimes Sportsbooks.

Serena Williams (-200 section, +165 Wimbledon)

Williams is 32, ancient by tennis standards where most players start in their mid-teens. Still, she is by far the best player in women’s tennis. Serena has 17 majors and will tie Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert for fourth all time with her next grand slam win. She has five Wimbledon titles, including in 2012. She lost in the fourth round at Wimbledon last year to grass court specialist Sabine Lisicki, who would eventually lose to Bartoli in the Final.  Serena was upset in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January and the second round of the French Open last month. Serena is 24-4 this season with titles at Brisbane, Miami, and Rome. Serena hasn’t played since the French Open loss.

Serena Williams is the #1 seed at Wimbledon. Seeded players in her section include #25 Alize Cornet, #20 Andrea Petokovic, #13 Eugenie Bouchard, #9 Angelique Kerber, #24 Kirsten Flipkens, #26 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and #5 Maria Sharapova. Serena’s section is challenging, and she could face French Open semifinalist Bouchard in the fourth round. A quarterfinal showdown with either Sharapova or Kerber would be fun. Serena is favored to win every tournament she is in but sometimes she doesn’t get motivated. I think she has a good shot making the semifinals at the very least. Or she could go out early like she did at the Australian and French Opens. We don’t know which Serena will show up. Potential semifinal opponents include Simona Halep, Jelena Jankovic, or Lisicki.

Maria Sharapova (+350 section, +725 Wimbledon)

Sharapova is 27 from Russia. She missed last few months of 2013 including the US Open with a shoulder injury. Sharapova has the career grand slam and five total. She won her second French Open title in three years two weeks ago beating Simona Halep in the Final. She lost in the 4th round at the Australian Open this year. Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004 and was the runner-up in 2011. She lost in the second round here last year. Sharapova is 31-6 this season with additional titles at Stuttgart and Madrid, both on clay.

Sharapova is in Serena Williams’ section of the draw just as she was in the French Open. Even getting to a potential quarterfinal match with Serena will be tough as she has to potentially get through Flipkens and or Kerber. The problem is Sharapova has lost to Serena Williams in 15 straight matches dating back to 2004. If Williams is upset early, then Sharapova has an excellent shot of at least making the semifinals and potentially winning the tournament.

Agnieszka Radwanska (+165 section, +1300 Wimbledon)

Radwanska is 25 from Poland. Radwanska is looking for her first major title. Radwanska  She lost in the semifinals at the Australian Open and in the third round at the French this year. Radwanska was the runner up at Wimbledon in 2012 and lost in the semifinals last year. She is 32-11 this season with no titles. She lost in the final at Indian Wells.

Radwanska is the #4 seed at Wimbledon. Seeded players in her section include #28 Svetlana Kuznetsova, #22 Ekatrina Makarova, #14 Sara Errani, #10 Dominka Cibulkova, #23 Lucie Safarova, #27 Garbine Muguruza, and #8 Victoria Azarenka. The section is challenging. A quarterfinal showdown with Azarenka could be interesting. Potential semifinal opponents include Na Li, Petra Kvitova, Sloane Stephens or Venus Williams. Radwanska is my pick to win her first grand slam title.

Petra Kvitova (+250 section, +1400 Wimbledon)

Kvitova is 24 from the Czech Republic. She won here in 2011 for her only major title. Kvitova has lost in the quarters the last two years at Wimbledon. She is 16-10 this season and has only made the semifinals in one tournament at Madrid this season. She lost in the first at the Australian and the third at the French.

Kvitova is the #6 seed at Wimbledon. Seeded players in her section include #30 Venus Williams, #18 Sloane Stephens, #12 Flavia Pennetta, #16 Caroline Wozniacki, #17 Samantha Stosur, #32 Elena Vesnina, and #2 Na Li. On paper, this looks like the most difficult section, but only Kvitova and Williams had had much  success on grass. Kvitova has been struggling in 2014. Kvitova withdrew from this week’s Aegon International with a hamstring injury. I think Kvitova faces another early exit even though she has had success here in the past.

Na Li (+250 Group, +1575 Wimbledon)

Li is 32 from China. She has two major titles including the 2011 French and the Australian Open this year. She was eliminated in the first round at the French Open. Li has never made it past the the quarterfinals at Wimbledon including last year. Li is 26-6 this season with an additional title at Shenzhen. She lost to Serena in the Final at Miami. She missed some time with a knee injury in April, but played in several clay events in May.

Li is the #2 seed at Wimbledon. She is in the same section as Kvitova. I think Li makes it out of the section and into her first Wimbledon semifinal.

Simona Halep (+180 section, +1600 Wimbledon) 

Halep is 22 from Romania. She advanced to the quarters at the Australian Open this year for the first time at a major. She lost to Sharapova in the finals of the French Open. This is only her third trip to Wimbledon and she has never made it past the second round. Halep is 25-8 this season with a title at Doha. She lost in the final to Sharapova at Madrid. As recently as late 2012 Halep was outside the top 50 in the rankings and is now #3 in the world.

Halep is the #3 seed at Wimbledon. Seeded players in her section include #29 Sorea Cirstea, #21 Roberta Vinci, #15 Carla Suarez Navarro, #11 Ana Ivanovic, #19 Sabine Lisicki,  #31 Klara Koukalova and #7 Jelena Jankovic. Lisicki seems to be her toughest competition in this section. Still I think Halep makes the semifinals here.

Eugenie Bouchard (+900 section, +2000 Wimbledon)

Bouchard is 20 from Canada. She has made it to the semifinals of both the Australian and French Opens this year in her second year of competing in grand slams. Bouchard is 30-12 this season with her first career title at Nurnberg.

Bouchard is the #13 seed at Wimbledon and is in the same section as Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. She lost in the third round here last year in her Wimbledon debut. We know she can play on hard courts and clay, but we don’t know how good she is on grass. She has a chance to escape from this section but I think it might take a year or two more to realize her full potential.

Sabine Lisicki (+350 section, +2200 Wimbledon)

Lisicki is 24 from Germany. She is 8-8 this season and hasn’t made it past the third round of any tournament. Lisicki lost in the second round at both the Australian and French Opens this season. She withdrew from the French with a wrist injury which also caused her to miss the tournament in Birmingham. Lisicki is a grass court specialist and has made to at least the quarters in her last 4 trips to Wimbledon. Lisicki has never made it past the fourth round of any other major. She lost in the final to Bartoli last year.

Lisicki is in the same section as Halep. Lisiski would probaly be a nice pick to win this section if not for the wrist injury and we don’t know how that will affect her.

Victoria Azarenka (+250 section, +2200 Wimbledon)

Azarenka is 24 from Belarus. She is 7-3 this season but just returned from a foot injury that kept her out of action from early March until after the French Open. Azarenka has two Australian Open titles, but lost in the quarters this year. She missed the French Open. Azarenka made the semis at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2012 but was upset in the second round last year.

Azarenka is in the same section as Radwanska. This is her first tournament back since the injury so rust could be a factor for the talented Azarenka.

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