Wimbledon - Reed: All Williams final on the cards

Eurosport - Sun, 28 Jun 15:32:00 2009

Eurosport-Yahoo! blogger Simon Reed believes that despite great form from the younger players, no-one can stop an all Williams final at Wimbledon.

2008 Wimbledon Venus and Serena Williams - 0

There were two huge upsets in the women's draw with teenagers Sabine Lisicki and Melanie Oudin ousting established stars Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic.

Lisicki is someone who I have liked for a long time and I know the German public have a lot of high hopes for her. She played very well and could be a challenger in the years to come.

As for Oudin, her win over Jankovic was great to see and her fairytale run continues.

I have been unsure about Jankovic for a long time now, she was off rhythm and just did not look right, and that was before she began struggling with stomach cramps and pains in her feet.

The 17-year-old American is having the absolute time of her life right now. This time last year she was beaten by Laura Robson in the juniors and she did well just to be here, coming through three rounds of qualifying, and facing match points in one of those qualifiers. To make it to the second week is a great achievement and her match against Agnieszka Radwanska should be intriguing.

Lisicki, Oudin, Radwanska and the Dane, Caroline Wozniacki, are four excellent players and it has been great to see their run at SW19 this week. But for these teenagers, their runs at the title will be cut short.

The problem for these younger players is that they need to beat Venus Williams to get to the final. I think Wozniacki will get the furthest, and will be beaten by Venus in the semi-final.

On the other side of the draw, there is no one who can really challenge Serena and you would be a fool to bet against the Williams sisters making it a fourth all-Williams final.

It is not just the younger players who are having good runs.

It has been nice to see Amelie Mauresmo battling her way through. It was really now or never for her, and I think if she crashed out then she would have retired. But she has shaken things up and is working well with her new coach, Hugo Lecoq. She meets Dinara Safina in the next round and I would not at all be surprised if she denies Safina the chance of a Grand Slam title.

On the men's side of things, I saw Tomas Berdych defeat Nikolay Davydenko and he looked very good doing so. He has all the ingredients to challenge the top players and is playing unbeatable tennis right now. He matches up well with his fourth round opponent, Andy Roddick, and I think he will take the lead. But Roddick is playing some great tennis and I think the American will ultimately be too strong for him.

The middle Saturday of Wimbledon is always a special day of the year. There was a huge crowd packed in and they left happy with Andy Murray's win. The guy is just in unbelievable form.

Simon Reed / Eurosport

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  1. I really hope this won't happen....AGAIN!I just­ hope that 2 players from these 3 will reach the­ finals:azarenka,dementieva and wozniacki

    From oana, on Mon 29 Jun 3:06PM
  2. The Williams sisters have made an immerse contribution­ to tennis and hence should be acknowledged for once.­ Sport is all about bringing everyone together­ irrespective of race, sex, nationality and status. The­ tennis kill joys who spend their time writing nonesense­ in this blog should get a life and understand that­ until someone come up to challenge the Venus sisters­ like R.Nadal did to R.Federer, the talented sisters­ will continue to win until they decide to quit the­ game. I pray they don't because without them, this­ years tournament would have been overshadowed by the­ male highly competitive category.

    From Manny, on Mon 29 Jun 2:58PM
  3. abdurrazeg a(94,95,97&97).....for those of you that­ don't know, Abdurrazeg A is a sick individual.­ She/he copy and paste other peoples' sentences.­ I'm a victim.

    From Chukwuemeka, on Mon 29 Jun 12:48PM
  4. abdurrazeg a......you are really sick. Stop using my­ sentence!

    From Chukwuemeka, on Mon 29 Jun 12:43PM
  5. abdurrazega GET A GRIP! STOP SPAMMING THE FORUM WITH­ MULTIPLE POSTINGS OF ONE THREAD!!!!!!!! :O x

    From opera.aria, on Mon 29 Jun 12:27PM
  6. Obviously this guy has not seen Azarenka...My­ prediction,Azarenka vs Safina for the final..

    From stavros h, on Mon 29 Jun 11:12AM
  7. Hatsutking, in my last message directed to you, I got a­ thumbs down, which I hope was not from you. I simply­ have another unplanned message for you here: Thanks for­ a giving reply, it was touching, why my invitation­ still stands - I am on your ymail contacts list (take a­ look: p_r_o_f_i_l_e_s d_o_t y_a_h_o_o d_o_t c_o_m), if­ you ever decide to accept my invitation for­ conversations "outside of these forums".­ Would be very nice indeed. Until then, I simply stick­ to the­ "no-more-conversations-in-these-forums-agreement&q­ uot; between the two of us, which I believe we both­ accepted somewhere else on this site.

    Here a short­ semi-anonymous presentation of myself for all of you­ who will be facing future posts of mine at­ yahoo/Eurosport: I am a Swiss alps jodler tennis­ enthusiastic who simply loves Roger Federer (not­ because he is Swiss, I reckon), but rather because of­ his unique and powerful primo ballerino tennis style­ put into something near perfection.

    My current yahoo­ profile picture on the left shows four male players,­ which RF has to beat in order to win Wimbledon.­ It's a tough task, which I am not so sure he will­ succeed to fulfill, but the one who beats him will­ certainly be worth the victory and if it would be for­ me to decide, my sympathies are for Murray the­ Scotsman, the only one who (as it seems right now) has­ the ability to plays a tennis I regard to be tennis­ (yes, please, give me a thumbs down, if you do not­ agree).

    Yours, C

    BTW Casalpusterlengho is the ancient­ spelling of an italian small town called­ Casalpusterlengo.

    From Casalpusterlengho, on Mon 29 Jun 9:02AM
  8. What an exciting day (I remember someone complaining­ about missing Nadal, yes I do, and I miss Delpo as­ well). But still, what an exciting day because of a­ still exciting draw!

    From Casalpusterlengho, on Mon 29 Jun 8:56AM
  9. Three hours and fifty minutes...and waiting.... for­ Tommy and Igor to walk onto the grass!

    From Hatsutking, on Mon 29 Jun 8:13AM
  10. Regardless of what the critics say, irrespective of­ the­ continuing hating, name callings and most­ obviously­ prejudice, The Williams Sisters are the best­ on grass­ and any other fast court. They are The­ players to beat­ and will remain so until someone­ CONSISTANTLY prove­ otherwise. That's the bottom­ line!

    From abdurrazeg a, on Mon 29 Jun 3:28AM
  11. Regardless of what the critics say, irrespective of­ the­ continuing hating, name callings and most­ obviously­ prejudice, The Williams Sisters are the best­ on grass­ and any other fast court. They are The­ players to beat­ and will remain so until someone­ CONSISTANTLY prove­ otherwise. That's the bottom­ line!

    From abdurrazeg a, on Mon 29 Jun 3:26AM
  12. Regardless of what the critics say, irrespective of­ the­ continuing hating, name callings and most­ obviously­ prejudice, The Williams Sisters are the best­ on grass­ and any other fast court. They are The­ players to beat­ and will remain so until someone­ CONSISTANTLY prove­ otherwise. That's the bottom­ line!

    From abdurrazeg a, on Mon 29 Jun 3:26AM
  13. Regardless of what the critics say, irrespective of­ the­ continuing hating, name callings and most­ obviously­ prejudice, The Williams Sisters are the best­ on grass­ and any other fast court. They are The­ players to beat­ and will remain so until someone­ CONSISTANTLY prove­ otherwise. That's the bottom­ line!

    From abdurrazeg a, on Mon 29 Jun 3:26AM
  14. IF BOTH SISTERS REACH THE FINAL

    YOU CAN HAVE MY PAIR­ OF CENTRE COURT TOICKETS ++ = BUY ONE + GET ONE­ FREE

    WE SHALL ENJOY CHAMPAGNE LUNCH INSTEAD WITH THE­ MONEY
    then read about he result later~~~ { or maybe­ never}
    we hope to see the charming smile of the Olympic­ Gold Medalist appear in the Singles final

    From ace.firstserve, on Mon 29 Jun 3:07AM
  15. GOOD LUCK BEST WISHES TO OUR OLYMPIC GOLDEN GIRL­ CHARMING ELENA DEMENTIEVA
    TO BRING HER HAPPY SMILE TO­ THE LADIES SINGLES FINAL Saturday

    Shewas a success ­ at the Olympics ~~ She can do it again here at grassy­ green Wimbledon

    From ace.firstserve, on Mon 29 Jun 2:54AM
  16. I love the william sisters but I like it when the other­ player makes it harder for them. Thats is when you will­ see the William Sisters play their best tennis.

    From Bblee, on Mon 29 Jun 2:41AM
  17. semi finals 1 Venus v Safina ~~~~ 2 Dementieva v­ Serena

    So lets hope for two charming Russian girls­ in the Ladies Singles Final on Saturday

    From ace.firstserve, on Mon 29 Jun 2:29AM
  18. beryll, there might be three possible reasons (which­ you might have guessed by yourself already):

    1. That­ particular poster hasn't read the message­ "Your message has been correctly received, it may­ take a few minutes to appear." after submitting­ or...
    2 That particular poster has indeed read the­ message, but didn't have the patience to wait for­ the message to appear any longer, or...
    3. That­ particular poster wants to move all the previous posts­ far down or onto another page.

    Maybe it would be a­ good idea for the programmers to delete doubles and­ display the received-message in fluorescent­ characters.

    Back to tennis: Can't wait until the­ Swede meets the Swiss and the Scot meets the other­ Swiss. Two perfect center court matches, I hope.

    From Casalpusterlengho, on Mon 29 Jun 12:20AM
  19. Hatsutking, check your ymail profile contacts.

    From Casalpusterlengho, on Mon 29 Jun 12:08AM
  20. WHY do people have to put multiple postings of the same­ thing? It is senseless.
    Having been predicted by the­ famous oracle, Simon , I doubt it will happen.

    From beryll, on Sun 28 Jun 11:52PM
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