Gauff Sabalenka to resume rivalry in bid to secure place on Wimbledon merry go round

LONDON – The Wimbledon women’s throne has turned into tennis’ version of musical chairs with new champions in the last seven years, and all signs point to another one as Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff resume their simmering rivalry on the pristine lawns of London.

The All England Club has not crowned a repeat champion since 2016 when Serena Williams captured the 22nd of her 23 Grand Slam trophies and the chances of injury-hit holder Barbora Krejcikova rediscovering her miraculous level from 12 months ago are slim.

Elena Rybakina and Marketa Vondrousova, whose names precede Krejcikova on the iconic honours board, remain dangerous players on the sport’s fastest surface but all eyes will be on the women who contested an error-strewn but enthralling French Open final.

American Gauff prevailed in the Roland Garros title clash against Belarusian Sabalenka earlier in June, and the 21-year-old will head to the venue of her breakthrough as a teenager in 2019 eager to finally conquer grass after clay-court and hardcourt success.

Gauff did not enjoy a good start to the grass swing after suffering a stunning second-round loss to Wang Xinyu in Berlin, but former Wimbledon quarter-finalist CoCo Vandeweghe said the two-time Grand Slam champion will learn from the experience.

“I don’t think this shakes her confidence,” Vandeweghe told the Tennis Channel.

“This isn’t going to be her best surface, but you know what she’s going to do? She’s going to take this loss and really work on herself. That’s what we’ve seen time and time again from Gauff. She’s the ultimate competitor.

“That’s what we always see from Coco, as much as we talk about the negative aspects of what goes wrong in her game, what we don’t talk about enough is what goes right.”

Sabalenka, who was beaten by Gauff in another