The 2008 Wimbledon Women's Singles title has been won by Venus Williams. Mad Professah correctly predicted 4 of the last 7 matches. Here are my reviews of the performances for the Top 10 Seeded players comparing my predictions from the start of the tournament to their actual performance.
1. Ana IVANOVIC (SRB). The reigning Roland Garros champion is still holding on to the title of the World No. 1 player by 143 ranking points after her unceremonious defeat in the thrd round by shock semifinalist Jie Zheng. The upside for Ivanovic is that she has generally underperformed on the American hard courts and does not have that many points to defend, including at the US Open. PREDICTION: Semifinalist. RESULT: 3rd Round Loss.
2. Jelena JANKOVIC (SRB). The "second Serb" under-performed my prediction by failing to get to her scheduled quarterfinal with Venus Williams. Surprisingly, now that Jelena has reduced her playing schedule she seems to be more plagued with injury than last year when she played more! But then again, Jankovic not only relishes the spotlight she seems to flourish in it. However, when it became public knowledge that all she had to do was out-perform Kuznetsova in order to become the new World #1 she inexplicably lost to Tamarine Tanasugarn. PREDICTION: Quarterfinalist. RESULT: 4th Round Loss.
3. Maria SHARAPOVA (RUS). Despite a dream draw that only contained a hobbled Lindsay Davenport and well-known head cases Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina. However, Sharapova went out to the hard-hitting Alla Kudryavtseva in the second round who one year before had almost taken out Venus Williams and had played a good set with Sharapova herself at the French Open also. Despite this, Sharapova played nervously and went out early at the venus where she had won her first Slam 4 years before. PREDICTION: Semifinalist. RESULT: 2nd Round Loss.
4. Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS). Oh, Sveta! Despite having been up 4-2 in the third set, somehow the 2004 U.S. Open Champion was unable to reach the Quarterfinals of Wimbledon for the fourth time despite being one of the contenders for the World #1 position at the time thanks to the even earlier exit of brand new No. 1 Ana Ivanovic. She lost to up-and-comer Agnieska Radwanska, who cemented her status as a Top 10 player. PREDICTION: Quarterfinalist (at best). RESULT: 4th Round Loss.
5. Elena DEMENTIEVA (RUS). Elena had a very lovely draw with the early departure of Maria Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport from her quarter and made the most of it by reaching her first Wimbledon semi-final against eventual champ Venus Williams. PREDICTION: 3rd Round Loss. RESULT: Semi-finalist.
6. Serena WILLIAMS (USA). Serena looked good for the entire tournament and most tennis pundits (except yours truly) picked the younger Williams would take the title. At the beginning of the tournament I was confident she would make it to the final match but postponed my title choice until I saw how they were both playing during the second week. I'm convinced that Serena was as surprised as anyone that Venus was able to beat her on Saturday, and woe betide the rest of the field in the next two slams. A vengeful Serena is a winning Serena. PREDICTION: Finalist. RESULT: Finalist.
7. Venus WILLIAMS (USA). For the third time in her storied career, Venus Williams was able to defend a major title from year-to-year. Interestingly, she had to do so by defeating her best friend and younger sister, someone who had previously beaten her in the five consecutive Grand Slam finals that they had contested. Venus was lucky that the players ranked above her happened to have bad losses early so that the only seed that Venus had to face before Serena in the final was Elena Dementieva, someone that she had not lost to in over four years. With her seventh major title she moves into a tie with recently retired Justine Henin and still has the possibility to move higher in the annals of tennis history. PREDICTION: Finalist. RESULT: Champion.
8. Anna CHAKVETADZE (RUS). The quietest Russian lost a tough match she should have won to Nicole Vaidisova in the fourth round which should have led to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal. Happily for her, the summer of hard court tennis awaits her where she plays her best tennis. PREDICTION: Quarterfinalist. RESULT: 4th Round.
9. Dinara SAFINA (RUS). The 2008 French Open finalist had never played well at Wimbledon and I expected her to be the member of the Safin family to finally make a respectable run at Wimbledon and lo and behold it ends up being her brother who didn't even bother showing up to watch his sister's first major final. Safina ended up losing an excruciating 3 1/2 hour match to Shahar Pe'er 8-6 in the third set. PREDICTION: Quarterfinalist. RESULT: 3rd Round.
10. Daniela HANTUCHOVA (SVK). The Czech player is comfortable on grass and was the other performer in the most dramatic match at Wimbledon last year: Serena Williams 4th round win. I had hoped that she would stay in the tournament long enough to have an equally interesting match against Venus but, alas, Daniela lost early and has now dropped out of the Top 10. PREDICTION: 4th Round Loss. RESULT: 2nd Round.
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