Tennis cutie pie, Elena Dementieva of Russia is my prediction to win Wimbledon, 2009. Even though her Wimbledon win percentage is not that great (just 69%), she reached the Semifinals last year. I think this will be her breakthrough year at Wimbledon.
My Semifinal match prediction is: Elena Dementieva vs. Venus Williams, and Serena Williams, vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova, with Dementieva playing Kuznetsova in the Final, and Dementieva bringing home the big plate.
The seeds for the top 10 match the top 10 ranked women: (1) Safina, (2) S. Williams, (3) V. Williams, (4) Dementieva, (5) Kuznetsova, (6) Jankovic, (7) Zvonareva, (8) Azarenka, (9) Wozniacki, and (10) Petrova.
A nice change in the seed # compared to the ranking # is Maria Sharapova. Sharapova is currently ranked # 59, but the Wimbledon seeding people saw fit to seed Sharapova at # 24, obviously realizing that she is a better player than her ranking shows right now. Her results in the last tournaments she has played show she is on her way back.
It would be nice to see Sharapova make a good run at Wimbledon. I would pick her to reach the Semifinals, as she did in 2005 and 2006. However, the past two years she hasn’t done as well, reaching the 4th round in 2007, and only the 2nd round in 2008. I pick Sharapova to reach the Quarterfinals this year, but fall short of making her first Final appearance at Wimbledon.
