Wimbledon Betting: How will the field solve a problem like Maria?

You can accuse Serena Williams of a lot of things - but lacking confidence clearly isn't one of them.

Back home in the States after getting knocked out in the first round of the French Open she's been discussing her ambitions for the London Olympics. She wants to play singles, doubles, and mixed doubles too. "I can do it," she says. "You put me in all three, I'm coming out with one or two medals."

Now at any time in the last decade it would be pretty easy to share that optimism. But not after that defeat in Paris. It wasn't just that she was knocked out by obscure French girl Virginie Razzano, it was the way it happened. Serena was 5-1 up in the second set tiebreak after winning the first set 6-4 and then just went to pieces.

It was a dismal performance, a few weeks after she'd left Rome early because of a shoulder injury, and suggests that her current price of 4.47/2 to win Wimbledon is one to lay rather than back.

I said the same thing before Paris, and also picked Maria Sharapova at 7.87/1 as the outstanding bet to win the tournament. There's not so much value to be had backing Maria this time - her success at Roland Garros has brought her in to be slight favourite at 4.3100/30. But with some profit in the bank from Paris there's no harm in risking some of it again - if only because last year's winner Petra Kvitova has done little since to suggest you'd want to support her at 5.24/1.

The key things about Sharapova still apply. A girl who once described the clay of Roland Garros as making her look like "a cow on ice" looked far more assured on that surface and moved easily around the court. On grass where pace and the ability to turn and adjust the body quickly is arguably even more important, that extra flexibility will be a big help.

She also has the hunger. She is back on the top of the rankings and wants to stay there. (Compare and contrast, incidentally, to Rory McIlroy's girlfriend and former number one Caroline Wozniacki who is close to dropping out of the top ten but has been busy promoting an underwear range).

I liked Sharapova's response to winning, immediately talking about where the next big triumph might come from rather than living in the moment. She's given herself only three days off to celebrate before starting work practising on grass and is clearly getting herself properly focused on recapturing the trophy that rocketed her to world stardom, when she won on Centre Court as a 17-year-old.

In current form she could do it - and then quite possibly pick up an Olympic Gold medal too, whatever Serena Williams might be hoping for.

Five things you might not know about Petra Kvitova

1.Born March 1990 in the small Eastern Czech town of Bilovic, her father Jiri, a teacher, encouraged her to play tennis.

2.There were only four tennis courts in the town, with a population of just over 7,000 - and Petra booked one of them after school to play with her brothers every day until at the age of 16, she was encouraged to leave home to pursue a career in the game and enrol in the tennis club in Prostejov.

3.She grew up with Czech legend Martina Navratilova as her idol - but never got to meet her until she played at Wimbledon in 2010.

4.Her boyfriend Adam Pavlasek is five years younger - they started going out before Petra's big breakthrough season.

5.She served 36 aces on her way to winning last year's Wimbledon title.