Potential Winners of the 2022 Wimbledon Women’s Singles Championship

What better place than Wimbledon to witness one of the great sporting events of the calendar year. The famous grass surface, the electric atmosphere of centre court (the 6th largest tennis stadium), the summer vibes on Henman Hill and the strict all white dress code for players enables a terrific championship. With 18 championship grass courts and 22 practice courts there is plenty of tennis to watch from during Wimbledon including men’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

Qualification and The Women’s Singles Championship

Being placed in the top 104 of the tennis world rankings has its rewards if you want automatic entry to Wimbledon, which no doubt those without injury will take advantage of. With most of the 128 positions fulfilled by the best in the world, 24 remaining places remain up for grabs.

Since 1977, eight of the 24 remaining places are awarded as wildcards. The championship committee set up for Wimbledon are able to award places to players that may not have accumulated enough points to be an automatic entrant. The wildcard players are usually selected to help generate interest and improve the profile of the championship. It may be a player coming back from injury who has dropped down the rankings or, a player who may have consistently performed well at Wimbledon during previous years. Wildcards should not be written off; in 2001 Goran Ivanisevic won Wimbledon having been plagued by injuries beforehand. What a story and great wildcard selection this proved for a champion that had previously been the runner up on three previous occasions.

The remaining places are fulfilled via a qualifying competition. Those players ranked 105 to 201 will be drawn against each other over three knockout rounds. Those 16 players remaining that have won each round will gain their ticket to play at Wimbledon. If by chance one of these players becomes injured or has reason not to play before the tournament starts then a ‘lucky loser’ will be selected from one of the players that made the third round of qualifying.

Wimbledon Women’s Singles Championships

Following qualifying and selection of wildcard entries the tournament has all 128 players ready and willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of winning the famous Venus Rosewater Dish. The women’s game is determined over a maximum of three sets. If during the first two sets the score reaches six games all then a tie breaker will be played to decide the winner of that set. If the third set reaches six games all, then play has to continue until one of the players has a two-game lead and wins the match. To win the Venus Rosewater Dish the champion must win seven matches in a row, excluding qualifying.

The final will start at 14:00 GMT on Saturday 9 July and there are some massive prizes to play for. The winnings now match the males’ competition; the 2022 champion will claim an exceptional £1.7 million, the runner up £900,000 and semi-finalists £465,000 each. The whole tournament including singles, doubles, mixed doubles and wheelchair events will payout approximately £35 million over the whole tournament.

Potential Wimbledon Women’s Singles Champion 2022

The 2022 Wimbledon championship will prove to be an exciting tournament with the best female tennis players in the world going toe to toe. Has the domination of the Williams sisters Serena and Venus, finally come to an end? Serena Williams was the last of the sisters to win back in 2016 and since then, she has finished runner up twice, most recently in 2019. Five different women have won the title in the last five championships. Let us take a look at some of those players that are in with a chance of winning Wimbledon 2022.

Maria Sakkari

The Greek has recently won Indian Wells and rose to third in the world ATP rankings. Beating the likes of Kvitova and Badosa on the way to reaching the final, she finally succumbed to Iga Swiatek. The right hander needs to take this form forward to have any chance of competing at Wimbledon where her best performance has been reaching the last 32 in 2017 and 2019. Can the additional experience and maturity improve her record?

Aryna Sabalenka

For the 23-year-old Belarusian, it is understandable that this year may be a difficult one to maintain strong mental focus. If allowed to play at Wimbledon she will not be able to play under the flag of Belarus due to the awful circumstances in Ukraine. Ranked as high as world number one in doubles and world number two in singles, Sabalenka is currently the women’s world number three. Winner of the Australian Open in 2021 her best performance at Wimbledon was a quarter final appearance in 2019. The amazing entry to the professional circuit seems to have slowed. This year has seen a fourth-round loss in the Australian Open to Kanepi, a second-round exit to Kvitova in the Dubai Duty Free Championship and a quarter final exit to Swiatek in the Qatar Open.

At 6ft (1.82m) tall, her strong service is an important weapon but Sabalenka has been struggling in competitions this year frequently serving double faults. This needs to be corrected if she wants to challenge for the championship.

Karolina Pliskova

Last year at Wimbledon, Karolina Pliskova was the runner up with winner Barty beating her in three sets. Currently ranked number eight in the world, she has not played in 2022 due to a hand injury but is making her comeback at Indian Wells so it will be interesting how she performs. The Czech 29-year-old right hander is 6ft 1in (1.86m) has a powerful serve, good groundstrokes and will attack the net. All eyes will be on her fitness at Indian Wells and hopefully there will be no recurrence of the hand injury.

Petra Kvitova

A two-time Wimbledon champion in 2011 and 2014, Kvitova is Czech and stands at 6ft (1.82m). In more recent times she has been a losing finalist of the Australian Open in 2019 and a semi-finalist at the French Open in 2020. Currently ranked 31st, Kvitova the former Wimbledon winner is still a valid championship contender if she can maintain fitness. This year she made the quarter-final of the Dubai Duty Free Championship beating Sabalenka on the way although she recently retired during the second-round match of the Qatar Open.

Iga Swiatek

The Polish 20-year-old is an up-and-coming star of tennis and already boasts a number 4 spot in the ATP world rankings. Previous best performances at Wimbledon involved a fourth-round exit in 2021, losing only after being one set ahead in the match. Amazingly, she became French Open champion at Roland Garros in 2020 and earlier this year made the semi-final of the Australian Open. Swiatek won the Wimbledon Junior Champion trophy in 2018 so clearly has a liking for grass and as she matures, it is expected that she will further than the fourth round.

Emma Raducanu

The rise to stardom was complete in August 2021 when Emma Raducanu won the US Open playing some scintillating tennis and beating Leylah Fernandez. Since then, she has struggled to repeat the form that won her first Grand Slam. At Wimbledon, her best performance was the fourth-round last year when she retired. With the British crowd cheering her on it can often help raise the level of tennis.

With no back-to-back winners since Serena Williams in 2015/16 there are many contenders including those further down the rankings that have the ability to win the women’s singles title. Is there another chance for a new name to be added to the elite list of players to have won the championship in 2022?

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