Williams vs Zvonareva – Russian will need to pull off a massive upset

Wimbledon Ladies finals don’t tend to find too many upsets, so wisdom would dictate that Serena Williams should take the title without too much bother.

She has found herself contesting a Grand Slam final fifteen times so far in her career, and has impressively won twelve of them – losing to her sister, Venus, on two of those occasions (at the US Open in 2001, then at Wimbledon in 2008). She’s the massive favourite for this one, with odds of 1/9.

That said, if Vera Zvonareva is looking for straws to clutch, she may take hope from Serena’s remaining Grand Slam final loss, which found her losing out in the 2004 Wimbledon final, to – rather fittingly – a Russian lady. On that occasion, it was Maria Sharapova.

Unfortunately, the threads of hope start to run pretty thin after that.

Only once in the history of the tournament has the eventual champion been seeded outside the top twenty – that was Venus Williams (seeded 23) in 2007.

And only on a further two occasions has she come from outside the top ten (Sharapova, seeded 13, 2004; Venus Williams, seeded 14, 2003).

Zvonareva is this year’s 21st seed – hence her odds of coming out on top are pretty long at 5/1.

Plus, in a rather worrying trend for Zvonareva, Williams won the Australian Open in 2009, then went on to crash out in the quarter finals at the French, before coming back blazing to win Wimbledon.

So far in 2010, she has won the Australian Open, and crashed out in the quarter finals at the French…

Can Zvonareva prevent history repeating itself? See the full Williams vs Zvonareva market.