Lindsay Davenport believes Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka can qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore, where the best eight players of the season are set to do battle.
Davenport, who has been announced as a WTA Finals Legend Ambassador, will not be surprised if either one of the former world No1s goes on a strong run over the next few months and books herself a place at the prestigious season finale.
Sharapova returned from a 15-month doping ban at the end of April, reaching the semi-finals in Stuttgart, before falling in the second round in both Madrid and Rome.
The Russian five-time Grand Slam champion pulled out of Wimbledon qualifying due to a thigh muscle injury she picked up in Rome and plans on competing next at the WTA event in Stanford (starts July 31).
Sharapova is currently ranked No180 in the world and is No110 in the Porsche Race to Singapore.
Meanwhile Azarenka is back from her maternity leave and is contesting just the second tournament since her return. The Belarusian, who had her first child, Leo, last December is into the Wimbledon fourth round, where she is playing Simona Halep.
“I would never count out Sharapova or Azarenka from anything,” said Davenport, a former world No1 and three-time major champion.
“These players are competitors. They know how to win. Either one could go on a tear and win a bunch of tournaments in a row. I’m not sure of the deficit they’re under in terms of Race to Singapore and points but either one of them could be holding the US Open trophy (this September) and with that, a lot of confidence, a lot of swag going into the fall as well.
“I think they’re both going to make big runs in the next 12 to 18 months. It’ll be interesting to see how Maria now handles almost the second part of this comeback. It seemed like it was a lot for her in the beginning.
“It’s so good that that’s out of the way — the media, facing the players, being at a tournament. It was a lot of matches for her to start off, her body wasn’t ready. But I think she’s back now training to what her body needs to move forward.”
Davenport, who coaches world No18 Madison Keys, feels the women’s game is in a great place at the moment and is also eagerly anticipating the return of Serena Williams, who is pregnant and plans on coming back to the sport after her delivery.
Williams, who won the Australian Open during the early stages of her pregnancy, has been posting videos of herself playing tennis while seven months pregnant.
Asked if Serena’s absence changes the landscape of the women’s game, Davenport said: “Totally, it changes everything. And I think some players look at it like a big opportunity, I think other players might look at it as a little bit more pressure because they feel like their time is this year.
“It’s amazing to hear her talk about quotes that she plans to be back in January in Australia. I love to that kind of enthusiasm and motivation. Serena posting pictures of her practicing pregnant is obviously a message to everybody of ‘I’m coming back’.”
Serena captured the opening Slam of the year but the second one was clinched by 20-year-old Jelena Ostapenko, who had never won a title before on tour prior to Roland Garros.
Davenport predicts we’ll have four different Slam champions this season.
“I think we saw it at the French Open final with Simona Halep, this is her biggest dream and she was so close, she wanted it so badly that it almost got in the way of her being able to play her style of tennis, the thoughts overwhelmed her,” said the American legend.
“But there’s so many players right now, Halep, (Karolina) Pliskova, (Elina) Svitolina, that are so good. It will be interesting when the US Open is over, who the four Grand Slam champions are this year, I’d be surprised if a player won two.”
One player Davenport can see is constantly improving is Great Britain’s Johanna Konta, who came through a huge battle with Donna Vekic to reach the third round at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
Konta, ranked No6 in the world, has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past 20 months or so thanks to a transformation in her mentality.
“I absolutely do (think she’s good enough to be No1),” said Davenport of Konta. “I think yesterday’s match was a great example of that. I always look at players and look at their weaknesses and look if those are improved upon. To see her yesterday to be a mental rock out there under some really difficult circumstances was in a way inspiring.
“We’ve seen her on the court maybe crumble more emotionally than anything else, and in the biggest court with the whole stadium packed for her, you’ve seen other players kind of crumble under the pressure of their home country, she stood up time and time again, 0-30 down, she never panicked, never blinked… she never had that look that I’ve seen before like looking over with almost scared eyes, that was gone.
“So you get a sense that that’s something she’s worked incredibly hard on, the discipline, being just focused on each point of her routine, she’s talked about, and it proved itself in one of her biggest moments here.
“It’s only the first time she’s been to the third round here. But all you need to do is walk around and watch her practice, watch the discipline that she brings, watch the intensity that she brings, it’s hard to see success won’t come for her.”
