By Chris Oddo | Sunday, June 28, 2015

 

After a three-week layoff, Maria Sharapova intends to hit the ground running in Wimbledon's first round on Monday.

Photo Source: Clive Brunskill/Getty

Thanks to a three-week layoff after the French Open, the two biggest stars in women’s tennis are feeling 100 percent fit ahead of the Wimbledon fortnight. It most certainly wasn’t that way as the French Open concluded, as Serena Williams battled the flu en route to the title while a physically fatigued Maria Sharapova bowed out in the round of 16 to Lucie Safarova before heading back to California to have her health more closely examined.

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“I was hoping I could play a warmup tournament leading up to this,” Sharapova told reporters at the All England Club on Saturday. “But due to the circumstances, the way I was feeling, actually I had to go back home and do some tests, run through all that. It took a little while for me to really refresh and recover and give myself just a chance to feel good again and get back to work.”

Williams said she took a week to rest, but was still surprised by how quickly Wimbledon rolls around after Roland Garros.

“I gave myself about a week just to get myself back together, physically more than anything,” Williams said. “Then I started slowly just getting back into it. Mentally I was always thinking about, ‘Gosh, Wimbledon's around the corner.’ I'm sitting here like, ‘Wasn’t I just in France?’ It kind of comes fast.”

Both Sharapova and Williams will be in action on Day 1 at Wimbledon, with Sharapova opening on Centre Court against British wild card Johanna Konta, and Williams facing off on Court 1 against Russian Margarita Gasparyan.

Sharapova, who could meet Williams in the semifinals if the seeds hold, joined the masses in tabbing the 20-time major champion as the favorite on Saturday saying “She's certainly the player to beat. With all the confidence in the world having won the last three majors, not just the two in this year. I think those results speak for herself, and she's certainly the one to beat.”

She added: “I think it always comes down to consistency. It's such a fine line. It's one thing to do it at one event or two events, but in order to have that level to be able to do it consistently I think is pretty incredible.”

Williams, meanwhile, shrugged off the pressure that many feel will come with her ongoing quest to become the first woman to notch the calendar Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988.

“Personally, [the pressure] doesn't make it feel any different, which I think is a good thing because I don't feel any pressure to win all four,” she said. “I've been saying that, but I really don't feel that pressure. Maybe if I would happen to win here, then maybe I might start feeling it after that. Ultimately, I'm taking it one day at a time and I'm not thinking that far.”

Williams added that she’s got some extra motivation at Wimbledon this year after bowing out earlier in her last two appearances. “I think the fact that I lost so early the past couple years definitely makes me motivated,” she said. “But I think that also gives me a little less pressure because I haven't done well here in the past two years. It makes me feel like, Okay, I'll be fine. I have nothing to lose here. I don't have many points to defend here. So it's just like trying to have fun, go through it.”