Can Serena Williams win a fifth Wimbledon title?
Serena Williams will begin the defence of her Wimbledon title on Tuesday, something which was looking unlikely just a few weeks ago.
Barely a week had passed after Serena’s victory over Vera Zvonareva in the 2010 tournament when she cut her foot on broken glass at a restaurant, the result requiring two operations and months of rest. Blood clots delayed her comeback further and Eastbourne last week was Williams junior’s first competition since Wimbledon last year. After going out to Vera Zvonareva in the second round, she can be said to have had the opposite of a good preparation for her Wimbledon defence.
Willaims told the press;
"It would be awesome and amazing but that's not my thought process. My thought process is just to play the best I can and to be positive. I'm happy to be here. Six or seven weeks of just trying to get myself together isn't a tremendous amount of time but the fact that I can even compete and be in a position I wasn't sure I'd have a chance to be in again is more than enough."
On her physical fitness;
"I didn't feel anything after a three-hour match. That was a blessing. Although I felt like the breaks were five seconds long. Every time I sat down, the umpire would call, 'Time.' But I felt like I was able to go through it. I was fine physically when I got off the court. My mom was so worried about me. I keep telling her I'm okay. She's like, 'If you feel anything, just stop. Come off the court.' I'm like, 'Mom, the doctor said I would be okay.' I talked to my doctor almost every day before I left and he said I'll be fine. I said, 'So can I pretend this never happened?' He said, 'Yeah, just pretend this never happened and you'll be fine.' I just had to get my lungs into better shape. I'm probably actually in better shape running-wise than I was before. There's some things that I want to work on and improve but I can't be upset at all about my game. It's fun. I feel like I'm young again. I have goals that I set for myself and goals that I want to achieve. It's good to have those goals to do."
She added: "I didn't travel with my serve to Eastbourne, so I hope it came with me. I hope he was in my luggage coming to Wimbledon because I've missed him."
France's Aravane Rezai is Serena’s first round opponent and given the uncertainties, I would not be lumping on at odds as low as 1/25. Rezai is available at 201/20 with Allyoubet and if pushed, that is the more appealing bet.