A New Wimbledon Queen

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Petra Kvitova, a tall, lanky, powerful 20-year old from the Czech Republic, became the 17th lady to win the Wimbledon Singles Championships in the open era, overpowering and outplaying the 2004 winner Maria Sharapova in two sets, 6-3, 6-4. Sharapova did not play poorly at all, trying to match Kvitova stroke for stroke from the baseline, but often fell just half a step short against a harder and more accurately hitting opponent.

Ladies' tennis has seen quite a bit of turmoil and inconsistency in the past few years, with no less than 10 different players winning the last 15 slams, and several players reaching the #1 WTA ranking without ever having won a slam (Jankovic, Safina, Wozniacki). Especially whenever the Williams sisters were unfit, the field seemed wide open. And more recently grand slam winners tended to be of relatively elevated tennis ages (Schiavone, Li, Clijsters, the Williams sisters).

But whoever saw Kvitova saw taking control of the final today, without a hint of shaky nerves, may wonder whether this may not be a champion to stay. This tournament saw also other talent leaving a mark, most notably semi-finalists Viktoria Azarenka and Sabine Lisicki.

Kvitova gets promoted to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I) as a result of this tournament victory. Sharapova returns to Ozeki (=Champion), a rank she held 2004-08. Serena Williams, who missed most of last year's post-Wimbledon season with injuries and came back only just before this tournament, loses active Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) status, but can regain it with a semifinal at the U.S. Open.

Here are the ladies' sanyaku ranks following the 2011 Wimbledon Championships:

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Kim Clijsters	Y	Venus Williams	Y
Y	Serena Williams	Y (ia)	-	-
O	Maria Sharapova	O	Na Li*	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Vera Zvonareva	S1	Petra Kvitova	S
S	Marion Bartoli	S2	-	-
S	Francesca Schiavone	K1	Victoria Azarenka	K
K	Sabine Lisicki	K2	-	-

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career
(ia) inactive
* Kadoban