| This has been a difficult year for the defending champion, who won her second Grand Slam title of 2006 at SW19 having already picked up the Australian Open. After being kept out for a large part of the season by appendicitis, she made early exits in Berlin and Rome and was ill-prepared for the French Open, where she lost in the third round. Her Wimbledon success removed some of the doubts around her capacity to cope with the mental strain of going all the way in a major, while her run to the final in Eastbourne suggests she has recovered her match sharpness. |
