Daily Wrap 15th June 2011 - Wimbledon, Williamses and Withdrawals

With the Williams sisters returning, the WTA might have hoped to showcase all their top players after what seemed like an eternity at the most prestigious of all Slams starting next week. But Kim Clijsters pulled the plug on those plans and her own ambitions of a first Wimbledon title as the Belgian pulled out due to a foot injury she suffered in a second round loss to Romina Oprandi yesterday. Clijsters missed the entire clay court season due to an ankle injury on the same foot and with another injury, the Belgian might be inclined to retire sooner than her planned 2012 exit post the London Olympics, coincidentally also to be held at SW 19. American Sam Querrey and Benjamin Becker also announced their withdrawal from the men's event due to elbow injuries

The Wimbledon seeds were announced today. The men are now seeded by a pre-determined formula which follows the world rankings and gives them extra credit for grass court wins in the last 2 seasons. That wasn't enough to push Roger Federer up from his current rank of no. 3. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are the top two seeds, which leaves us with the possible prospect of a Nadal-Federer showdown in the semi-finals.

The only change for the women's seeds related to the Williams sisters. Serena gets bumped from no. 25 to no. 7 while Venus moves from no. 33 to no. 24. Serena's comeback ended today at the hands of world no. 3 Vera Zvonareva at the Aegon International in Eastbourne. Serena won the first set and served for the match in the second, before the Russian bounced back to win it in a tie-break. In the third, it was Serena who fought back from 2-5 and 3 match points down to 5-5 but she was unable to complete the turnaround and Zvonareva held on to win the decider 7-5.

Venus, on the other hand, put in a commanding performance to dispatch Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 6-2. Venus' game is more prone to breaking down and the matches here will help her getting into groove for Wimbledon. Serena has the extraordinary ability to come in cold and get red-hot during the Championships so the loss does not put her chances in any different light than they were at the beginning of this week.

In other notable results from Eastbourne, French Open champion Li Na was beaten by Daniela Hantuchova, who is having a good run on the grass courts this year. On the men's side, top seed Jo-Wilfred Tsonga was beaten in straight sets by veteran Radek Stepanek and 20 year old Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, nicknamed "Baby-Fed" was an impressive straight sets winner over sixth seed Kevin Anderson. Many have been waiting for Dimitrov to break through for a while now but the Bulgarian has struggled to translate his success from the Challenger circuit to the ATP tour this year.

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