WOW Sports is happy to announce that we have expanded our coverage to now include tennis. With Wimbledon starting tomorrow we thought it was the perfect time to officially add our second sport. We will still continue our coverage of the Women’s World Cup followed up with overall soccer coverage.
We will provide current world rankings, tournament insight with schedules and analysis. Feel free to go to our “Tennis” page and check out our coverage.
Tennis has a rich history and is beloved by millions of people. Wimbledon is a staple tournament in the sport known for its fresh grass courts and all white apparel requirement.
128 women will compete in the singles portion of Wimbledon starting on July 1st and the final two players will square off on July 13th.
There are 36 different nations represented at the tournament with the most being from the United States having 18 athletes. The highest ranked American at Wimbledon is Sloane Stephens at ninth with Serena Williams not far behind ranked 11th.
The number one overall ranking belongs to Australian, Ashleigh Barty. She clinched the top seed by winning the Birmingham Classic on June 24th. The 23-year-old will look to add to her recent slew of victories most notably her win at the 2019 French Open.
When Barty was named the top seed she dethroned Japanese player, Naomi Osaka, who had the infamous win over Serena Williams at the 2018 US Open and followed it up with a win at the 2019 Australian Open.
Angelique Kerber of Germany currently ranked fifth in the world will look to retain her Wimbledon title she won in 2018. Kerber defeated S. Williams last year in the final match, but if the two win their matches respectively they would face off in the semifinals this year.
The top half of the Wimbledon bracket does seem to be more daunting and full of heavy favorites compared to the bottom half. Barty, S. Williams, Kerber, Kiki Bertens (ranked fourth), Stephens and Petra Kvitova (ranked sixth) all encompass the top half. While Osaka, Arvna Sabalenka (ranked tenth), Simona Halep (ranked seventh), Karolina Pliskova (ranked third) and Elina Svitolina (ranked eighth) make up the bottom half of the bracket.
Nine of the last ten Wimbledon champions are all in the top half of the bracket and Marion Bartoli is the only exception to the last ten years winning the 2013 Wimbledon title, but she has since retired. Venus Williams (ranked 44th) is the only player on the bottom half the bracket to win Wimbledon since the turn of the century winning in 2000, 2001, 2007 and 2008.
There have only been nine different Wimbledon winners since 2000 with the majority of those titles going to S. Williams who has seven.
Will a new champion be crowned this year or will the usual winners prove Wimbledon is made for the experienced veterans? Find out by staying up to date on WOW Sports and by watching the matches on ESPN with coverage starting tomorrow at 6:00 am ET on ESPN3 and ESPN+.