By IANS
Wimbledon : Women's world number one and top seed Justine Henin has been drawn in the same half along with two-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams for the third Grand Slam event of the year starting Monday.
The two met at the same stage of the French Open earlier this month with Henin winning in straight sets for the loss of seven games before going on to take the Roland Garros title for the fourth time in five years.
However, the 25-year-old Belgian has got no closer to the Wimbledon title than two previous appearances. In 2002, she lost to Serena while last year she was beaten by Amelie Mauresmo.
The draw released Friday gave Henin an easy start against Argentinian qualifier Jorgelina Cravero, with a possible fourth round confrontation with the 15th seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.
In theory, there could be an all-Williams final – as in 2002 and 2003 – since Venus is in the bottom half of the draw as 23rd seed, facing the possibility of a fourth round clash with the 2004 champion and second seed Maria Sharapova.
Mauresmo's hopes of defending her title have not been improved by illness and injury blighting much of this year, and she is seeded no higher than fourth as a result, also in the lower section of the draw.
Mauresmo begins against the American Jamea Jackson but might need to get past some formidable opposition from 14th seed Czech Nicole Vaidisova, 11th seed Russian Nadia Petrova or the French Open finalist and sixth seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia to progress to the semi-finals.
The other Serb in top 10, Jelena Jankovic, seeded third and one of the strong title contenders, starts against British number one and wild card entrant Anne Keothavong.
There is the intriguing possibility of a quarter-final for Jankovic against the resurgent Martina Hingis, who won the Wimbledon 10 years ago.
Hingis is one of five former champions in the field for the 121st edition of the championships, the others being the Williams sisters, Sharapova and Mauresmo.
With the possible exception of Venus, who has struggled to find form after a wrist injury, all the others are expected to make a strong bid for the title.
But it seems everything hinges on that prospective quarter-final against Henin in a line-up that features 17 Russian women, compared with 11 from the United States, the nation which dominated at Wimbledon until so recently.