WIMBLEDON, England — Who says the oldest and most tradition-laden of tennis’ major championships doesn’t change with the times? There is, at long last, a retractable roof atop Centre Court at Wimbledon this year.
Rest assured: They still use grass courts, they still make the players wear white, and they still schedule a day off on the middle Sunday of a tournament first held in 1877. Here’s something else that stays the same at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club: Venus Williams and Serena Williams are the women to beat.
This is Venus’ tournament, in particular. She’s won five titles, including the last two, at Wimbledon, which begins today. Serena has won this Grand Slam tournament twice, beating Venus in the 2002-03 finals and losing to her in last year’s championship match.
The names and faces at the top of women’s tennis keep switching, as players emerge, then recede or retire — Martina Hingis, Justine Henin, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Amelie Mauresmo. The Williams sisters? One or the other — or both — participated in eight of the past nine Wimbledon finals, and they’re the top picks of British oddsmakers this time.
“Serena and I, we often talk about that: ‘Wonder what happened to them?’ We’re still here — and we’re not leaving,” said Venus, who will attempt to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win three consecutive Wimbledon championships.
No. 3-seeded Venus is slated to play her first match Tuesday against Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland. Voegele’s career Grand Slam record is 0-1, and Venus’ is 180-38.
“I’m not sure it’s right at all that Dinara Safina is the top seed at Wimbledon. Venus has won it five times,” said Mary Carillo, a former player working on ESPN2’s telecasts.
Second-seeded Serena starts today against 154th-ranked Neuza Silva of Portugal.
Glance
A look ahead to Day 1 of Wimbledon at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club:
Today’s key matches: MEN — No. 2 Roger Federer vs. Yen-hsun Lu, No. 4 Novak Djokovic vs. Julien Benneteau, No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Andrey Golubev, No. 13 Robin Soderling vs. Gilles Muller, No. 17 James Blake vs. Andreas Seppi. WOMEN — No. 2 Serena Williams vs. Neuza Silva, No. 4 Elena Dementieva vs. Alla Kudryavtseva, No. 8 Victoria Azarenka vs. Severine Bremond Beltrame, No. 24 Maria Sharapova vs. Viktoriya Kutuzova.
Defending singles champs: Rafael Nadal and Venus Williams.
New this year: Centre Court now has a retractable roof, which will allow for matches to be played while it’s raining.
Key statistic: 14 — Number of Grand Slam singles titles won by both Federer and Pete Sampras, the most by a man. Federer tied Sampras’ record by winning the French Open this month and can break it by winning Wimbledon.
Prize money: Total is 12,550,000 pounds (about $20.5 million), with 850,000 pounds (about $1.4 million) each to the men’s and women’s singles champions.
On TV today: ESPN2, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.
