It's diva vs. former meltdown queen in the Wimbledon women's final. Reporting from the All England Club, Peter Bodo answers questions on Saturday's matchup of Serena Williams and Vera Zvonareva.??
- What parts of Zvonareva's game will she need to use to defeat Serena, or will Serena have to collapse for her to have a chance?
Zvonareva will need to have the returning day of her life, unless Serena's serve runs off the rails. Little chance of that happening, though; Serena's been very consistent, and her ace total for the tournament (80), is miles ahead of her nearest rival (who happens to have been her sister Venus, with 30). Still, Zvonareva will get a look at a few second serves, and she needs to make the most of them in order to pressure Serena and perhaps make her go for too much with her first serve. You know, the House of Cards theory. Beyond that, Vera needs to serve well herself, and she has to jerk Serena around the court if she can. You don't want to let Serena run east and west, tagging big forehands and backhands. Vera should also sneak to the net as often as possible. Basically, she will have to fight a guerilla war, hoping to flummox and frustrate Serena. Tough assignment.
- Serena has the game’s best serve. What’s an overlooked part of her game that we’ll see on display Saturday???
I'd say service return. When it really counts, Serena is capable of hitting really big returns. This will play on Zvonareva’s mind, especially if Serena holds easily and puts Zvonareva under even greater pressure to hold. I think Zvonareva knows she'll have to mix it up and attack the net, so we can expect to get a good look at Serena's passing shot, too.??
- How has Zvonareva, one of the WTA tour’s notorious head cases, been able to keep it together through six matches???
To everything, turn, turn, turn. The answer is not in those six matches, it's in the gradual rehabilitation she's enjoyed this year. Heck, this woman has "makeover" written all over her, right down to the clothes she now wears on court. She used to be casual, sporty, Vera, now she's, almost, matronly out there, with that duckbill visor and proper tennis dress. This is a woman who has patiently and successfully re-invented herself. ??
- Win or lose, do you expect Zvonareva to become a consistent threat at Slams, considering her showing at SW19???
Yes, I think she's going to be in the hunt in the foreseeable future, unless she backslides to the "head case" Zvonareva days. One of the main reasons I believe this is because of the quality—or lack thereof—of the competition. Let's face it, with the exception of Serena and to some degree Venus Williams, none of the women—none—have shown the ability to establish themselves as steady, reliable performers. Vera is basically taking advantage of a window of opportunity, left open by Maria Sharapova's injury, the sudden disappearance of Justine Henin (bad elbow, out until the fall), Kim Clijsters’ inconsistency, and the unreliability of women like Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic. But there are other good young players waking to this: Watch out for Petra Kvitova.??
- Is Serena as dominant a No. 1 as she’s ever been?
Yes—at least in the athletic sense. But in order to really dominate, you have to rule the roost day-in, day-out, and Serena doesn’t like sitting the roost. A big win here re-establishes her dominance, yet who knows when she'll play again. To extend an already strained metaphor, if she puts all her eggs in the U.S. Open basket and doesn't win the title, it will be hard to say she "dominated" anything. What she's done is dominate two of the three majors that have been played in 2010, which is different from dominating the tour in the manner of a Chris Evert, Steffi Graf or even Martina Hingis.