UNITED KINGDOM

Andy Murray looking for third victory at 140th Wimbledon championships

July 3, 2017

Defending champion Andy Murray aims to lift the men's trophy for a third time at the All England Club in London. The absence of defending singles champion Serena Williams at this 140th Wimbledon creates a void that the new French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko, among others, will be anxious to fill.

Murray ended 77 years of British pain when he won Wimbledon in 2013, then repeated the triumph in 2016. The last player to bring the trophy home for Britain was Fred Perry, who won the championship three times in succession between 1934 and 1936. To defend his 2016 win, Murray might have to vanquish the resurgent Roger Federer.

The seven times Wimbledon women’s singles champion, mother-to-be Serena Williams, is believed unlikely to return to top line competition any time soon. Her absence opens the door for her sister, Venus, to take her sixth Wimbledon singles title. Maria Sharapova, who would have been playing under the stigma of a doping ban that followed the 2016 Australian Open, will also be absent, having announced in June that she will miss the Wimbledon qualifying tournament due to injury.

Federer, meanwhile, clinched the greatest triumph of his career when he defeated Rafael Nadal in the 2017 Australian Open for his 18th grand slam title. The 35-year-old, who hadn’t won any of the big four events in tennis since Wimbledon 2012, defied age and injury for a spectacular win in the Australian tournament. He has to contend with an equally resurgent Nadal, who recently notched up a record 10th victory at the 2017 French Open.

#22152 Updated: JUN 15 TO SHOW SHARAPOVA WILL NOT PLAY AND RESULTS OF FRENCH OPEN