In the final of the ladies’ singles at the Wimbledon Championships of 2011, one of the pre-tournament favourites and crowd-puller, fifth seeded Maria Sharapova will play the eighth seeded Petra Kvitova.
Sharapova, who had won the 2004 edition of the Wimbledon has looked as she has ever been. She has yet to drop a set and if she continues to perform in the manner that she has, Kvitova will have a fight on her hands. This is Sharapova’s second Wimbledon final and she would look to repeat the feat that she performed seven years ago.
In the semi-finals, Sharapova was at her demolishing best when she blasted German Sabine Lisicki off in straight sets. Lisicki had earlier beaten the French Open champion Li Na and then overcome Marion Bartoli in the quarter-finals.
Against her will be the 21-year old Czech left-handed player, Petra Kvitova, who overcame the fourth seed, Victoria Azarenka in a tough match that went the distance. This will be Kvitova’s first finals and the pressure will be totally off her.
Sharapova has three Grand Slam titles, but the last one came way back in 2006. Five barren years would have made her yearn badly for a Slam and what better than the Wimbledon to get back to her winning ways. Sharapova had won the Rome Open before this and had entered the semi-final of the French Open. The performances have come due to the forehand which has sent down some gruesome winners and a footwork that improved a lot. It could then be her serve which may cause her some problems given her tendency to serve up many a double-faults.
Kvitova will go into her first Grand Slam final as an underdog, having got to her best ever ranking at the start of the tournament. She is ranked eighth and will look to ensure that Sharapova doesn’t run away with the title. With only four WTA titles and a best of a quarter-final place in a Grand Slam before this, it will not be easy for her.
Kvitova had earlier won the title at Brisbane and then went on to win the WTA Paris title. She may be down 0-1 in the head-to-head against Sharapova, but this could be her very good chance to turn that around.
Predicting a winner is usually difficult but one has to say that Sharapova will go in as favourite. Of course, it will be interesting to see how she handles Kvitova’s sliced serve and the exhilarating ground strokes.