Stars of the past still loom as top candidates for this future fortnight.
As tennis turns to Wimbledon, there has been a bit of a throwback feel to this Grand Slam season so far. • At the year’s first major tournament, the Australian Open in January, Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal for the men’s title, and Serena Williams defea
Federer the favorite
Wasn’t all that long ago that folks were figuring Federer’s best days were long behind him. He hadn’t won a Grand Slam title since 2012, and as he entered his mid-30s, he was missing Grand Slam tournaments for the first time in more than 15 years because of injury. And now? He extended his record with an 18th major championship in Australia, opened the year 19-1, took some time off and then won a grass title at Halle, Germany. With defending champion Andy Murray off-form this season, Federer is a popular pick to win Wimbledon for what would be a record eighth time.
Nadal shifts from clay to grass
There was a time when Nadal excelled on any surface, winning Wimbledon twice and reaching the final on three other occasions while marching his way toward 10 French Open titles and completing a career Grand Slam, too. But then his knees became a real problem on grass and he not only started losing early at the All England Club, he started losing to players ranked 100th or worse. “When Rafael is good with his knees,” said Nadal’s uncle and coach, Toni, “he can play well on the grass.”
Who Not is only missing?is seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Wilmp liams absent, but so is 2004 champ Maria Sharapova, who was forced to sit out last year’s tournament during a 15-month doped ing ban. She would have needed to qualify this time around but is now sidelined by a left thigh injury. Their absences lend the same sort of wide-open feed to the women’s draw that the French Open had.
All a five-timeSo eyes the on two champion,Kvitovapast winnersand Petra Kvitova, a two-time champ.in the field are Venus Williams, Kvitova will get plenty of attention because of what she went through in late December: An intruder attacked her with a knife at her home in the Czech Republic. Kvitova wound up with cuts to her left hand — the one she uses to swing a racket — and needed surgery. Wimblledon will be the third tournan ment of her comeback; she won e second last week on grass. Another two-time major champion to keep an eye on: former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka. This wwill be her first Grand Slam tourhe nament in more than a year; she turned to the tour in June after giving birth to a son.
Which Djokovic will show up?
Novak Djokovic has won three Wimbledon titles and normally would be considered a real likely candidate for a fourth, but he has not played up to his usual standards over the past year. He went from winning four consecutive Grand Slam titles, something no man had done in nearly a half-century, to failing to defend any of those championships; he lost in the third round at Wimbledon in 2016. He tried to look on the bright side recently, saying: “It is liberating a bit. I was very fortunate and privileged to have so much success in the last eight, nine years, and kind of entered most of the tournaments as one of the biggest favorites. So for a change, it’s good to not be one of the top favorites. It releases a bit of the pressure.”
Ostapenko bids for suitable encore
After coming out of nowhere to win the French Open, what will Jelena Ostapenko do for an encore? She arrived in Paris unseeded, ranked only 47th and without a title of any sort on tour, then used a fearless brand of high-risk tennis to win the championship. Now there are new expectations, and no opponent will overlook her, but consider this: Grass is her favorite surface; she was the junior champion at Wimbledon in 2014.