Wimbledon Hasn't Been Smooth Sailing for Top Seeds

Wimbledon during opening week has mostly gone as expected. In fact, the pattern at Wimbledon resembles the results from the French Open, where the men's favorites survived early challenges and the women's favorites fell early. Two of the top three women's seeds have fallen, leaving only a No. 1 that still hasn't won a Grand Slam in Caroline Wozniacki. Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal needed an extra day to survive his latest test, as he tries to get hot like he did at the French Open.

Nadal started with some problems at Roland Garros before overwhelming the competition. Therefore, the field should be more afraid of him than usual now, as he tries to get more and more dominant at Wimbledon. On Friday, Nadal survived two set points against Gilles Muller before rain suspended the match, then he survived another tiebreaker before sweeping the third set on Saturday morning.

The 7-6, 7-6, 6-0 victory put Nadal in the round of 16 against Juan Martin del Potro, although he is still working out the kinks from opening week. But he, Roger Federer, Novac Djokovic and Andy Murray are still on track to go through to the semifinals, as they did in the French Open. Andy Roddick lost to Feliciano Lopez, but early losses for Roddick are not shocking anymore.

Meanwhile, the women's results are as topsy-turvy as expected, as French champion Li Na and second seed Vera Zvonareva have been defeated. Wozniacki is still alive.

Wozniacki is the symbol of the state of women's tennis now that the Williams sisters have been sidelined. Although she has never won a major title, she has remained No. 1 for some time, despite constantly collapsing in the later stages. But this time around, Venus and Serena Williams are both waiting in the wings in case Wozniacki goes down, which hasn't happened in some time.

The Williams sisters haven't breezed through either, but that is to be expected, given their hiatus's and injury problems. Venus is already through to the round of 16, while Serena attempted to join her by defeating Maria Kirlenko. Should both Williams' make the second week, it may just prevent Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and the men's bracket from totally overwhelming the women's bracket for a while.

Yet the more likely results next week would have the top four men's seeds become the biggest story at Wimbledon, as they were in the French. If history repeats itself, Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray should get better as they go along before facing each other- and by that patter, Nadal would ultimately be triumphant again.

Sources

Yahoo Sports- "Nadal slams door on 2005 conqueror Muller"

Bleacher Report- "Wimbledon 2011 Results: Andy Roddick, Other Top Seeds Struggling At Wimbledon"