Wimbledon Week 2 - The Ladies

A few thoughts on the second week of Wimbledon for the women:
Queen Serena: If Rafael Nadal is the king of men's tennis right now, then no doubt, Serena Williams is queen of the women. If Roland Garros was played on grass or hard courts, I have no doubt Serena would be playing for THE Grand Slam at the U.S. Open in September. As it is, she'll be playing for her third Slam title of the year, and she's got to be the odds-on favorite to win it. She's playing well, she seems to be fit and she's motivated, and when she's motivated, I don't think anyone can stop her. I heard commentators asking if Serena was now in the discussion of the greatest player ever. My answer is a blunt "no." Like Nadal, I think Serena's on the "B-Plus" list, but at 13 Slams, she hasn't yet joined the Margaret Smith Court, Steffi Graf, Helen Wills Moody, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova club. Get back to me, though, in about six months, when I fully expect Serena to win her 15th Slam at the Australian Open. That's my magic number for putting her on the "A" list.
Venus Out of Orbit? One of Venus Williams' goals this year was to get back to the top of the women's game. No doubt, she's accomplished that – in a way. For a month this spring, she got back to No. 2, but let's face it, her results in the last four Grand Slams are not befitting of a No. 2 player – two Round of 16 losses and two quarterfinal losses. The most recent one, her 6-3, 6-2 defeat to Tsvetana Pironkova, was especially dismal. Williams is now 30, and as much as I'm pulling for her to pull her game together in the Slams, all greats fall eventually. Could she be doing that, now?
Vera, Vera Good: When I first saw Vera Zvonareva, the Russian was 17-years-old, and she was taking it to Serena Williams in the Round of 16 at Roland Garros. I expected great things from her then, but in the eight years that followed, she only reached one Grand Slam quarterfinal, and more often than not, her head got the better of her. Now at 25, she's finally found a way to keep those nerves (mostly) in check, and she's started turning in results closer to what I expected from her. She's the third surprise Grand Slam finalist in two Slams, but we'll see if Zvonareva can live up to this run. If she starts reaching quarterfinals and occasional semis at the Slams, then she will have done so.
Czech Mate: That's what Tomas Berdych had in the second week of Wimbledon this year, in the form of compatriot Petra Kvitova, who reached the semis. So far, from her generation, we've seen Caroline Wozniacki reach a Grand Slam final, Yanina Wickmayer reach a semifinal, Sabine Lisicki reach a quarterfinal and Victoria Azarenka reach the Top 10 and reach multiple Slam quarterfinals. None of them have lived up to those results, though, for various reasons. We'll see if Kvitova can break that trend.
Disappointing Belgians: If you had told me at the start of the tournament that the winner of the projected Kim Clijsters/Justine Henin Round of 16 would not have to face a Williams sister until the second Saturday, you can bet your bottom dollar I would have penciled that player into the final. Instead, we got one of the weirdest Grand Slam results I can remember. Henin got hurt in the first set, went down in three and is already out of the U.S. Open, and Clijsters took all the momentum she gained from that win and ... went away in the third set against Zvonareva, a player she had never lost to. All credit to Zvonareva for staying tough, but if you're one of the top players in the game – and Clijsters is as much as anyone right now – you cannot lose that match. It will be interesting to see what the hard-court season brings for her.
Kanepi's Run: Quick, which women's singles player played the most matches at Wimbledon this year? Serena and Zvonareva? Nope - try Kaia Kanepi, who played eight in reaching the quarterfinals. Kanepi came into Wimbledon with a top 100 ranking, but because the cutoff for the main draw was six weeks before the tournament, she was relegated to the qualifying tournament, where she won three matches and then did not lose a set until the second set of that quarterfinal, against Kvitova. Despite having multiple match points, Kanepi could not close the deal, losing 8-6 in the third. So what does she take away from this month? That she qualified for Roland Garros and Wimbledon and played tough at both events? Or that she lost a chance to get to the semis? We'll find out soon enough. and in the mean time, we know Kanepi won't be playing qualifying at the U.S. Open or any other Grand Slam tournament in the near future.