Serena is about to embark on what might be the second greatest Grand Slam adventure of her life—the first being her introduction to major tournament play in 1998 (incidentally, she won a match at every Grand Slam event that year, and made the fourth round at the French Open). She was just 17 then, and now she’s at the other end of the pipeline—30 years old, injury-prone, coming off a truncated year in which she failed to win a major for the first time since 2006 and hampered by a sore ankle that threatens to limit her throughout the tournament. She has her work cut out for her.
Why She’ll Win: That’s an easy one that requires just three words: Because she’s Serena.
Why She Won’t: Age and its allies, which include loss of ambition, physical frailty, waning desire and loss of focus, seem to have finally caught up with her.
Bottom Line: If she runs into someone like Dani Hantuchova or Angelique Kerber, she may end up not even making it to the tournament’s second week.
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