Wimbledon 2011: Victoria Azarenka Could Become Next Great Name In Women's Tennis

The Williams sisters are obviously advanced in age and their comeback to Wimbledon didn't go as planned (or apparently as hoped by most of the sports media). Caroline Wozniacki is the No. 1 ranked woman in the world, but she was covered less than others at the tournament. Kim Clijsters is currently injured, and she's hardly a global icon. Simply put, there's plenty of room for someone within women's tennis to rise up and begin to dominate -- to give the sport a new face to promote. Wimbledon is apparently providing the room for that to happen with the foibles, injuries and unexpected losses that have mounted thus far.

Victoria Azarenka has the best chance to enter that arena, given her ranking is already higher than Sharapova's. Azarenka has already won $7 million in prize money at age 21, and the Belarussian is currently ranked No. 4 in the world. She's won a couple of Grand Slam titles already in mixed doubles and her singles star is peaking at just the right time - when women's tennis is lacking in major star power.

Thus far, she's more known for her grunting and screaming than her playing, but a strong finish at Wimbledon to take the title would insert her immediately into the middle of any conversation about the future of women's tennis. Even at such a young age, she's already taken 7 singles titles and finished runner-up in 7 more. Her quarterfinal showing at the 2011 French Open tied her best singles Grand Slam finish to date, so she's already breaking her personal bests at Wimbledon so far. With her match against Petra Kvitova, against whom she is 2-2 in her career, she has a chance to do more than just set personal highs.