Women to Watch at Wimbledon

*World ranking: 8
*Oddsmaker ranking: 5
*Grand Slam titles: 0
*Best previous Wimbledon result: 3rd round (2008)

This Belarussian is bratty and loud, but she's also in the top 10 while still a teenager. Along with Caroline Wozniacki, the other teenager who's made her way into the top 10, she's considered one to watch for a long time to come.

If people are right she'll be on this list for quite a few more years.

She's won three tournaments this year, including Miami's Sony Ericsson Open, sometimes unofficially called the fifth Grand Slam. In addition this year she got to the fourth round of the Australian Open, where she retired against eventual winner Serena Williams after being up a set, and to the quarterfinals of the French Open, where she lost a close match against No. 1 Dinara Safina.

"It's all experience, which I have to learn from, and hopefully I'll do better next time," she said after that match.

Working against Azarenka are her lack of experience on the Grand Slam stage, her inability to keep her cool and an injury that apparently caused her to withdraw from a Wimbledon warm-up event earlier this week.

*World ranking: 59
*Oddsmaker ranking: 3
*Grand Slam titles: 3
*Best previous Wimbledon result: Winner (2004)

Anyone who's won Wimbledon before is a contender. Not only did Sharapova win Wimbledon before, she won at just 17. Today she's one of the biggest names in sports—and one of the most marketable. She's the world's highest-paid female athlete.

That may have a little to do with her being tall, leggy and blond, but it has a lot to do with her being a fighter.

One clear indication of this? That she's on this list at all. Last year she got surgery on a shoulder that kept her from playing tournaments for nearly a year. The French Open was only her second tournament this year, yet she made it all the way to the quarterfinals. No one—barring perhaps Serena Williams—could beat her in the grit department.

"I just gotta keep working and keep my head up," she said after her loss at the French Open. "The only thing I can do is just work...and keep getting better."

Still lack of match play and a recuperating shoulder will make it hard for her to win seven matches and take the title this year. If it weren't for issues others are dealing with (e.g., Victoria Azarenka and a possible health issue, Ana Ivanovic and a confidence issue), she'd likely be lower on the list of contenders.

*World ranking: 1
*Oddsmaker ranking: 4
*Grand Slam titles: 0
*Best previous Wimbledon result: 3rd round (2008)

Dinara Safina has a good shot at winning Wimbledon partly for the same reason she lost the French Open—the pressure...but this time, the lack of it.

She's still being harassed about being No. 1 without having won a Grand Slam, which many consider the litmus test for tennis greatness, but she won't face the pressure to win her first at Wimbledon the way she did at the French Open. Many are counting her out, because she self-destructed in the French Open final and because her last name isn't 'Williams'.

Safina also has a good shot at Wimbledon partly for the same reason she got to the French Open final—she's gotten so fit (just look at her), pretty calm (the final showed there's a lot of improvement) and really, darn good at tennis. How else could she have gotten to the finals of both of the year's Grand Slams and won two other tournaments?

Distraught though she was after the French Open final, Safina said, "I didn't win it, and now it's disappointing. But tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow I will be fine."

If she keeps that in mind, plays the rock-star tennis that's gotten her to the No. 1 ranking and forgets everything else, she can go far...and maybe all the way.

*World ranking: 2
*Oddsmaker ranking: 1
*Grand Slam titles: 10
*Best previous Wimbledon result: Winner (2002, 2003)

She has the best chance of winning Wimbledon, oddsmakers say, and they're willing to bet on it. They give her slightly better odds than the woman who beat her last year, older sister Venus.

The look on a player's face when she's across the net from Serena gives you an idea why—Serena looks like she's salivating as she waits to smack a service return for a winner, and her opponent...well she just looks scared.

No one's immune. Not Maria Sharapova, perhaps the next most fearsome competitor on the tour, who won just three games off Serena in the 2007 Australian Open final. And definitely not Dinara Safina, currently No. 1, who won just three games off Serena, in this year's Australian Open final.

That's not surprising considering that when Venus and Serena were just getting started on the pro tour, their own father said Serena would be better than Venus because "she's meaner." "Sometimes she scares me," he said.

There's no denying Serena has a lot going for her—a great serve, an even better return, major power and good movement. And she's been especially ready to go since her loss in the French Open quarterfinals just over two weeks ago.

Asked if she wished there was more time before Wimbledon, she said, "No, because...I lost here. Maybe I can do better at Wimbledon. I wish it were tomorrow."

Still there's one woman in the draw who has little to fear, and her last name is 'Williams' too.

*World ranking: 3
*Oddsmaker ranking: 2
*Grand Slam titles: 7
*Best previous Wimbledon result: Winner (2008, 2007, 2005, 2001, 2000)

The trophy has her name on it. Literally. When the women's final is won, what the winner gets to lift up for photographers, fans and the rest of the world to see is called the Venus Rosewater Dish. How apt.

What's in a name, you say? Well there are plenty of numbers too. The most important of these is five—for the number of times Venus has won the woman's singles title. That puts her in a league with only two other women in the modern era, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf. To put her five titles into even more context, consider this: Venus has one title more than the rest of the 127 players in the draw combined.

"Winning this tournament so many times definitely puts you in the stratosphere, to be honest, just because of what this tournament means," Venus acknowledged.

Several factors contribute to Venus's dominance at Wimbledon. She has the fastest serve in the draw, and that is a big advantage on grass courts in particular. Good volleying goes a long way on grass too, and Venus's 6'1" height gives her great reach at the net.

Perhaps most important, Venus seems to want to Wimbledon (in a way you don't sense she wants to win, say, the French Open). A Williams sisters who really wants to win any Grand Slam tournament is close to unstoppable if for that reason alone.

Venus Wimbledon. That's what little sister Serena, the oddsmakers' favorite this year and the woman who lost to Venus in the final last year, has called big sister Venus in the past. What's in a name? Sometimes there's lots in a name.

***No. 6: Caroline Wozniacki
World ranking: 9
Oddsmaker ranking: 8
Grand Slam titles: 0
Best previous Wimbledon result: 3rd round (2008)

***No. 7: Svetlana Kuznetsova
World ranking: 5
Oddsmaker ranking: 6
Grand Slam titles: 2
Best previous Wimbledon result: Quarterfinal (2003, 2005, 2007)

***No. 8: Elena Dementieva
World ranking: 4
Oddsmaker ranking: 10 (tied)
Grand Slam titles: 0
Best previous Wimbledon result: Semifinal (2008)

***No. 9: Sam Stosur
World ranking: 18
Oddsmaker ranking: 10 (tied)
Grand Slam titles: 0
Best previous Wimbledon result: 2nd round (2008)

***No. 10: Ana Ivanovic
World ranking: 13
Oddsmaker ranking: 7
Grand Slam titles: 1
Best previous Wimbledon result: Semifinal (2007)