TENNIS WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIP: THE RAFT of seeds at the top of the women's draw just keeps floating on and on. Yesterday's sun-baked third round was another exercise in big names beating up on little names, Venus Williams actually using the boxing phrase "sparring partner" for the person she hits with during practice.
Of them all, the first 6-0 set from a player few people may have heard of, Caroline Wozniacki, was one of the most assertive displays of the day when there was plenty of grandstanding and assertion.
Third seed Williams throttled Kateryna Bondarenko 6-3, 6-2 and sixth seed Jelena Jankovic cruised onwards, defeating Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4; Ana Ivanovic, seeded 13, started slowly then picked up her game in the second set against Italian Sara Errani 7-5, 6-1; world number one and top seed Dinara Safina met Rossana De Los Rios but the Paraguayan failed to last as long as her name and departed 6-3, 7-5; Svetlana Kuznetsova, the fifth seed, blazed around an outside court and finished off the French hopes of Pauline Parmentier 6-1, 6-3.
Coached by her father Piotr, who was a professional footballer (her mother an international volleyball player), the Danish player of Polish extraction, Wozniacki, has been making ripples on the tour before this week. Seeded nine here, she faced the Russian Maria Kirilenko, ranked 59th in the world.
The 18-year-old arrived at Wimbledon having won her fifth career singles title at Eastbourne and last year she made it through to the third round of the main Wimbledon draw as the 31st seed.
Her game has blossomed over the last 12 months, enough to make the Wimbledon committee knock her rating down to ninth favourite. But the manner of her straight-sets win should make the other seeds take notice.
She hit Kirilenko off the court in much the same manner as we have seen the Williamses make top professionals look leaden-footed. While the teenager slowed down in the second set as Kirilenko recovered somewhat from the early pummelling, she finished off the match 6-0, 6-3. Seeking to go further than the third rounds she achieved in the Australian Open and at Roland Garros, her age profile, ranking and big game has her regarded by many as the future of the women’s game.
“I like grass,” she said. “I think it suits my game and I usually like it fast. I like the shorter rallies. I like being the one who decides to open up the court first.”
Wozniacki is in Safina’s side of the draw, although they won’t meet for a couple of games if both players advance. Safina is currently touched by that curious state of being the world number one ranked player who has yet to win a Grand Slam. She also felt slighted, along with Kuznetsova, for having to play on outside courts, when other players ranked lower were on the show courts. “It’s not fair,” said Safina. “But I mean I’m not doing the schedule.”
Kuznetsova shrugged it off. “This is a little bit weird. But you know in Wimbledon you have to expect anything.”
The sub-text to all of this is that the Russian players, with the exception of Maria Sharapova, are not big draws even though there are five in the top 10. But playing out in the relative sticks does put them at a disadvantage. Safina is the top seed and will have played less on Centre Court or Court One than her potential opponents.
There are no Russian players on Centre Court today but two Regina Kulikova and fourth seed Elena Dementieva are on Court One.
