It has been a historic year at Wimbledon, with a record-breaking number of seeds exiting the championships.
The first round saw 23 seeds across the men’s and women’s singles draws exiting their respective competitions, and more have since fallen
However, this has left the door ajar for many players to take advantage of the chaos.
Martina Navratilova, a tennis legend who won nine Wimbledon singles titles, weighed in on the discussion and said who might be the favourite for the women’s title.
Martina Navratilova says Elena Rybakina is ‘maybe the favourite’ for the Wimbledon title
Speaking during the BBC’s coverage of Rybakina’s match versus Maria Sakkari, Navratilova noted Rybakina’s prior experience at the tournament, while pointing out the ‘big hole’ in the draw.
Navratilova recently gave advice to Mirra Andreeva, who is the only seed ranked higher than Rybakina in the bottom half of the draw.
On Thursday afternoon, Navratilova said: “The bottom half, the top seed now is Mirra Andreeva who’s seeded seventh and even if you don’t pay attention to the draw and you don’t look ahead, you know you’re in the top half or bottom half depending on when you play.
“So all these players know that two, three and five (seeds) are gone. Pegula, Gauff and Qinwen Zheng gone.
“So you know there is a massive opportunity for you to get through. There is a big hole in the draw.
“That whole bottom half is wide open and maybe Rybakina’s the favourite now even though she’s only seeded 11th.
“She has obviously had the best results here in the past.”
Navratilova is referring to Rybakina’s sole Grand Slam triumph, when she beat Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur to win the Wimbledon Ladies Singles title in 2022.
Elena Rybakina advances to the third round of Wimbledon despite mixed serving performance
Elena Rybakina, one of the best WTA Tour players on grass, moved on to the third round of Wimbledon after a convincing performance against Greece’s Maria Sakkari.
The former Wimbledon champion had not made it past the quarter-finals at the Queen’s Club Championships and Berlin Grass Court Championships. However, Rybakina looks to be hitting form at the right time as she heads into the latter stages of Wimbledon.
The Kazakh player won 6-3 6-1. However, she had a rather remarkable serving performance.
Rybakina struggled throughout the match to land her first serve, making only 45 per cent. However, she won an incredible 90 per cent of these points.
The world number 11 will either face Denmark’s Clara Tauson or Anna Kalinskaya in the third round. The Kazakh player will fancy her chances of going far at the tournament, as she is the highest seed left in her quarter of the draw.
