Can we trust Karolina Pliskova? It’s starting to look that way. The No. 3 seed has been famously hit-and-miss in the past, but in the last three majors she has reached the final, the quarters and the semis. Her run to the semis in Paris, where she had never been past the second round, was especially impressive. Can she do it again? Pliskova also has never made it out of the second round at Wimbledon. Her draw makes another breakthrough look plausible. The highest seed in Pliskova’s half here is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and the second-highest seed in this quarter is Caroline Wozniacki, who has never made the quarters at Wimbledon.
Also here: 2017 French Open quarterfinalist Kiki Mladenovic, and 2015 Wimbledon quarterfinalist CoCo Vandeweghe. They could meet in the third round.
Semifinalist: Pliskova
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If we’re calling the women’s draw wide open, what would we call its third quarter? Door blown off? The top seed in this section is Dominika Cibulkova, who has been struggling all year. The second seed is Elina Svitolina, who has never been past the second round at Wimbledon. The third-highest seed is Venus Williams, who will be dealing with the aftereffects of a tragic, fatal car accident in Florida earlier this month. And the fourth seed is Ostepenko, who, while she’s the French Open champion, is 1-2 for her career at Wimbledon.
This means opportunity. For Madison Keys, who likes grass; for Ana Konjuh and Barbora Strycova, who have played well here in the past; for Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who reached the semis at Wimbledon all the way back in 1999; even for Sabine Lisicki, the 2014 finalist who is returning after yet another injury.
First-round matches to watch:
Cibulkova vs. Andrea Petkovic
Konjuh vs. Lisicki
Svitolina vs. Ashleigh Barty
Semifinalist: Lucic-Baroni