Powerful Aryna Sabalenka will be a major Wimbledon title threat
Aryna Sabalenka has been backed to be a real danger if she goes deep at Wimbledon this season.
Annabel Croft believes that Sabalenka at her best will be tough to stop at the All England Club.
Sabalenka has played in three finals since her Australian Open triumph and lost them all but it isn’t her championship match defeats that are a great concern.
Croft feels that Sabalenka will be more vulnerable to an upset in the earlier rounds of Wimbledon.
“She loves Wimbledon and has said how much she missed it last year when she was unable to play,” Croft told Wimbledon.com.
“She reached the 2021 semis here, and in doing that, she successively defeated the two women who contested the 2022 final – Ons Jabeur in the last 16 and Elena Rybakina in the quarters. So you can see how good she is on grass.
“Her game is all-out power – get your crash helmets out. When she’s on, she’s unbelievable.
“She’s also a very good doubles player [with two Grand Slam titles alongside Elise Mertens], so she knows how to volley and transition forward. Unless she goes out early in a big upset, the deeper she goes in the draw, the more dangerous her power game makes her.”
Her two biggest rivals have been beset by illness in the past month with Elena Rybakina playing just one tournament on grass and Iga Swiatek pulling out of Bad Homburg with reported food poisoning.
Sabalenka is eager to get going at Wimbledon and hopes for a memorable run after missing out on the Championships last term.
“I really like to play at Wimbledon,” said Sabalenka.
“I like the feeling of grass and I think my game is suited to it. I enjoy the atmosphere. I can’t wait to show my best tennis.”
In her sixth Wimbledon appearance, Sabalenka will face 82nd-ranked Hungarian Panna Udvardy in the first round in what will be a first meeting between the players.
If seeding holds in her section of the draw Sabalenka is set to face the woman who ended her Grand Slam dreams in Paris, Karolina Muchova, in the fourth round of Wimbledon.
Should she vanquish Udvardy, Sabalenka will go on to a second round match against either France’s Varvara Gracheva or Italian Camila Giorgi in the second round.
Sabalenka’s is seeded to meet Irina-Camelia Begu in the third round but the Romanian will have a pair of tricky matches to navigate to reach that stage.
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