Zvonareva Outlasts Serena At Eastbourne In 3-hour Slugfest

2010 Wimbledon champion Serena Williams lost in her second match off after nearly a year off to World #3 and 2010 Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva in a tough 3 hour, 14 minute match 3-6 7-6(5) 7-5 at the Aegon International at Eastbourne. Serena did well, refusing to concede despite being down 2-5 in the 3rd set and pulling even to 5-all only to lose the last two games of the set and the match.Venus Williams went through to the Eastbourne quarterfinals with a 6-3 6-2 win over Ana Ivanovic who has been playing some good grass court tennis recently.

WIMBLEDON 2011: Seeds Released (Serena #7, Clijsters Out)

Wimbledon starts on Monday, so the seedings have been released today, with the draw happening on Friday. The grass-court tournament is the only major to often drastically differ from the world rankings, and they have done so again.

Here are the men's singles seeds:

Gentlemen's Singles

1 Rafael NADAL (ESP) [1]
2 Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB) [2]
3 Roger FEDERER (SUI) [3]
4 Andy MURRAY (GBR) [4]
5 Robin SODERLING (SWE) [5]
6 Tomas BERDYCH (CZE) [6]
7 David FERRER (ESP) [7]
8 Andy RODDICK (USA) [8]
9 Gael MONFILS (FRA) [9]
10 Mardy FISH (USA) [10]
11 Jurgen MELZER (AUT) [11]
12 Jo-Wilfried TSONGA (FRA) [12]
13 Viktor TROICKI (SRB) [13]
14 Stanislas WAWRINKA (SUI) [14]
15 Gilles SIMON (FRA) [15]
16 Nicolas ALMAGRO (ESP) [16]
17 Richard GASQUET (FRA) [17]
18 Mikhail YOUZHNY (RUS) [18]
19 Michael LLODRA (FRA) [19]
20 Florian MAYER (GER) [20]
21 Fernando VERDASCO (ESP) [21]
22 Alexandr DOLGOPOLOV (UKR) [22]
23 Janko TIPSAREVIC (SRB) [23]
24 Juan Martin DEL POTRO (ARG) [24]
25 Juan Ignacio CHELA (ARG) [25]
26 Guillermo GARCIA-LOPEZ (ESP) [26]
27 Marin CILIC (CRO) [27]
28 David NALBANDIAN (ARG) [28]
29 Nikolay DAVYDENKO (RUS) [29]
30 Thomaz BELLUCCI (BRA) [30]
31 Milos RAONIC (CAN) [31]
32 Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP) [32]

The main beneficiaries are Tsonga who moves from ATP #19 ranking to Seed #12 and Llodra who moves from ATP #25 ranking to Seed #19.

The women's singles seeds are even more interesting 

1 Caroline WOZNIACKI (DEN) [1]
2. Vera ZVONAREVA (RUS) [2]

3. Na LI (CHN) [3]
4. Victoria AZARENKA (BLR) [4]
5. Maria SHARAPOVA (RUS) [5]
6. Francesca SCHIAVONE (ITA) [6]
7. Serena WILLIAMS (USA) [7]
8. Petra KVITOVA (CZE) [8]
9. Marion BARTOLI (FRA) [9]
10. Samantha STOSUR (AUS) [10]
11. Andrea PETKOVIC (GER) [11]
12. Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS) [12]
13. Agnieszka RADWANSKA (POL) [13]
14. Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS) [14]
15. Jelena JANKOVIC (SRB) [15]
16. Julia GOERGES (GER) [16]
17. Kaia KANEPI (EST) [17]
18. Ana IVANOVIC (SRB) [18]
19. Yanina WICKMAYER (BEL) [19]
20. Shuai PENG (CHN) [20]
21. Flavia PENNETTA (ITA) [21]
22. Shahar PEER (ISR) [22]
23. Venus WILLIAMS (USA) [23]
24. Dominika CIBULKOVA (SVK) [24]
25. Daniela HANTUCHOVA (SVK) [25]
26. Maria KIRILENKO (RUS) [26]
27. Jarmila GAJDOSOVA (AUS) [27]
28. Ekaterina MAKAROVA (RUS) [28]
29. Roberta VINCI (ITA) [29]
30. Bethanie MATTEK-SANDS (USA) [30]
31. Lucie SAFAROVA (CZE) [31]
32. Tsvetana PIRONKOVA (BUL) [32]

The shocker is the removal of Kim Clijsters, who withdrew from the tournament with a re-injured ankle this morning. The 2010 defending champion Serena was seeded #8 but moved up to #7, despite her WTA #26 ranking. Venus, who is a 5-time champion was seeded #23 despite her WTA #33 ranking. This is an absolute travesty of a seeding for Venus. One year ago Serena was ranked #1 in the world and Venus was ranked #2 but the two have played only a handful of tournaments combined since then (Serena hasn't played at all).

Venus, Serena Win In Grass Season Debuts

Venus Williams, 5-time Wimbledon champion, played her first grass court match of the year and her first WTA tour match since losing in the 3rd round of the Australian Open Andrea Petkovic on Monday. Venus won 7-5 5-7 6-3 against the World #11 (#8 seed) at the Eastbourne warm-up tournament for Wimbledon, which starts on Monday June 20.

4-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams played her first tennis match in nearly a year at the same tournament today, beating 2010 Wimbledon semifinalist Tsvetana Pironkova 1-6 6-3 6-4.

Venus and Serena have won a combined 9 Wimbledon singles titles since 2000, playing 5 finals against each other. The graphic above illustrates Venus' amazing performances at Wimbledon since her 1998 debut, 5 titles, 3 finalists and 3 quarterfinals but also two horrendous early round losses in 2004 and 2006.

Tsonga Upsets Nadal On Grass At Queens

Fresh off winning his 6th French Open title on Sunday, Rafael Nadal went to London on Monday and played in the Queen's Club tournament which is a warm-up for Wimbledon which starts on June 20th. Like last year, Nadal lost in the quarterfinals to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7(3) 6-4 6-1. Tsonga will play British qualifier James Ward while Andy Roddick will play Andy Murray in the other semifinal. So, presumably Tsonga will face Andy in the final. Tsonga has never done well at Wimbledon but perhaps this breakthrough could signal a change for the better.

Nadal won the 2010 Wimbledon final over Tomas Berdych in straight sets 6-3 7-5 6-4, after Berdych eliminated 2009 champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals.