No Serena, so it’s a bit of a lottery

– With Serena Williams preparing for the birth of her first child and Maria Sharapova sidelined by a thigh injury, the race to be crowned Wimbledon champion is the most wide open in a generation.

Having stepped away from the court as she waits to become a mother in September, Williams, who won Wimbledon in 2015 and 2016, has created a power vacuum at the top that Sharapova was expected to fill when she returned from her doping suspension.

Instead, Sharapova lasted just three tournaments before a muscle injury in Rome forced the fivetime major winner to withdraw from the Wimbledon qualifying tournament.

But the flip-side is the opportunity for the sport’s less heralded names to seize the spotlight, as Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko showed with her unexpected breakthrough win at the French Open.

“There are about 15 women who could win this year. It’s one of the most open ever,” said John Lloyd, a former British men’s No 1 who now a BBC commentator.

Ostapenko, 20, shot up to 13th in the world after beating Simona Halep in the Roland Garros final.

Now she has to prove that stunning success was more than a flash in the pan.

World No 2 Halep is still coming to terms with her failure to win her first Grand Slam.

Three games away from the title and the world No 1 ranking, Halep crumbled to her second major final defeat – the other coming at the 2014 French Open.

Halep’s battle with current No 1 Angelique Kerber in the WTA rankings will be an intriguing sub-plot at Wimbledon.

Kerber needs to improve dramatically after her defeat against Ekaterina Makarova made her the first top-ranked woman in the Open era to fall in the opening round at Roland Garros.

If Petra Kvitova gets her hands on the trophy for a third time, it would complete a fairytale comeback following the hand injury she sustained while being attacked by a knife-wielding burglar in her home in December. – AFP