Women's Draw / Guy McCrea / 29 June 2011 /

An established name and three emerging talents make up the semi-finalists in this year's Wimbledon women's singles. Guy McCrea discusses who might win through and what it could mean for the future of women's tennis ...

It's tough to shake the feeling that this year's Wimbledon could be a watershed moment in women's tennis. Don't get me wrong, Li Na's French Open success was a wonderful story. But at 29-years-old, the Chinese player is unlikely to be a long-term star for the WTA.

That may be the case though for the clutch of young ladies primed to seize their first Grand Slam singles crown at Wimbledon this weekend. For Sabine Lisicki, Petra Kvitova or Victoria Azarenka, the next few days could be career changing. Maria Sharapova already has three major titles to her name, but another Slam success would prove definitively that the Russian is well and truly back after all her injury troubles.

In part, this has all been made possible by the Wimbledon exits of both Serena and Venus Williams. The iconic sister act have won nine of the past 11 ladies singles titles between them but for the first time since 2006, neither will wear the Wimbledon crown this time. Frankly, however heart-warming it was to have them back involved - especially Serena after her harrowing health problems - it would have damaged the credibility of women's tennis if either had won the tournament, having played so little in the past year. The defeats of Venus and Serena showed that even they cannot simply waltz back into the big tournaments and clean up with hardly any match practice.

The past ten days have shown that, contrary to popular belief, there is depth on the WTA. This is the first Slam in quite some time where the women's contests have been comfortably more entertaining than the men's matches. Think of Venus' thrilling win over Kimiko Date-Krumm, Lisicki's triumph over Li Na, or Austrian teen Tamira Paszek's marathon success against Francesca Schiavone. To date, the men simply haven't consistently matched the excitement level of those clashes.

So who can take advantage, now that we have reached the business-end of Wimbledon? Well, Sharapova [2.26] is the favourite to add a second title to her 2004 triumph. I have written before that I could not see Sharapova winning another Grand Slam without improving her serve. The former world number one's French Open semi-final defeat where she served ten double faults, proved this once again. But it has held up so far, while the rest of the Russian's game has been at its devastating best - not least in her quarter-final demolition of talented Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova. If Sharapova can continue to avoid a serving disaster, then the rest of her game is definitely good enough to win.

Certainly, I fancy Sharapova to beat Lisicki in their match on Thursday. The wildcard is the first German woman to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals since Steffi Graf in 1999. Lisicki [7.2] has been the story of the women's tournament and is undefeated on grass in 11 matches, having also won the warm-up tournament in Birmingham earlier this month. But I wonder if after a series of tough matches in her Wimbledon run, Lisicki may run out of gas. She is also likely to be nervous in her maiden Grand Slam semi and for these reasons I like a Sharapova victory in straight sets [2.04].

The other semi-final is a tighter call. Like Lisicki, Azarenka [4.7] will be making her maiden appearance in a major semi-final as she plays Czech lefty Kvitova, who lost to Serena at this stage last year. Both women have earned rave reviews for their ultra-confident, aggressive first-strike tennis and as such, this contest will probably be about who is able to create a better ratio of winners to unforced errors.

At four, Azarenka is the highest seed remaining but as I have written in the past, it is just a matter of time before Kvitova takes a major title. Her powerful game has crushed a variety of opponents during Wimbledon and although she won't do that to Azarenka, I still see Kvitova [1.94] winning to reach her first Grand Slam final.

While Sharapova is already a superstar across the world, whose brand is vital for the WTA, a maiden Grand Slam singles title for either Lisicki, Azarenka or Kvitova would also be well-received by those who market the women's game. All three (albeit Kvitova to a lesser extent) feature strongly in the WTA's current promotional campaigns but along with the rest of the WTA's younger talents, they will only permeate the public consciousness by winning Grand Slam titles.

That would be good not just for them, but for the future of women's tennis. It needs a new respected pack of stars to spearhead any resurgence. As such, on many levels, success on Saturday is vitally important.

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