Despite withdrawing from the French Open as a precaution to avoid wrecking her grass court season, France's Tatiana Golovin still hasn’t recovered from her ankle injury and is likely to miss Wimbledon. World No. 17 has already pulled out of Birmingham, the Wimbledon warm-up event. (via Tatiana Golovin Fan Club)

After the 6-2 6-1 humiliation by Ana Ivanovic in the Roland Garros semifinal, world No. 2 Maria Sharapova turned her thoughts to her love affair with Wimbledon.

The 20-year-old Russian will warm-up for the third Slam of the year at next week's Birmingham Classic, a Tier III event she won in 2004 and 2005.

Maria, who said last week that she felt like a “cow on ice” on clay, now has something to look forward to:

"I'm excited. My favorite time of the year is coming up, the grass and the hard court season. So I'm very looking forward to it,"

"I love being part of Wimbledon. I can't even say how happy I am when this time of year comes around.

"I'm always thinking from the beginning of the year, 'I hope I'm always healthy when Wimbledon comes around because it's a very special place in my career, in my heart'.

"I always love going back there." (source: Reuters)

Martina Hingis is missing the ongoing French Open due to injury. However, I found on a website martinaworld.com that she will play the $175,000 Ordina Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, Holland. This Tier III event starts June, 18. It's played on grass. The world number 6 won this tournament in 2000, the only time she competed there.

After the event in Holland, we will watch Martina play at Wimbledon, which starts a week later.

This year, Wimbledon will give male and female players equal amount of money, and more money than ever before! "No tennis tournament has ever offered higher prize money than Wimbledon in 2007," claimed Tim Phillips, Chairman of the All England Club and The Championships. The 25 June-8 July tournament will have an overall fund of £11,282,71 — 8,7% higher than last year.

Winner of Wimbledon 2007 will take home much more money than last year's winner. Amelie Mauresmo took the trophy in 2006 and earned £625,000 — £30,000 less than her male counterpart Roger Federer. This year, both Men's and Ladies' Champion will receive £700,000.

Wimbledon made this change, along with some other changes, to reward the players appropriately for the talent, entertainment and drama they bring to this prestigious grass court tournament.

(via Wimbledon official website)

The most likeable female tennis player, Kim Clijsters, decided Wimbledon to be the last Grand Slam of her career. This means that she won't play at the U.S. Open, which she won in 2005.

However, the former No.1 decided to play both singles and doubles at Wimbledon; "That way, I would be able to stay a bit longer at my last Grand Slam tournament," she announced on her website.

Clijsters has already withdrawn from the French Open, because she will be preparing for her wedding at that time. The 23-year-old Belgian will get married to Brian Lynch, American basketball player, on July 14, in her hometown of Bree.

Clijsters has had many problems with injuries during her career, and at the moment she is still recovering from a sore back which forced her to leave the Sony Ericsson Open early. Clijsters' next tournament is J&S Cup in Warsaw which starts on April 30, where she is the defending champion. "I'm not fully there yet, but I want to get used to clay again," world No.4 said.

Kim Clijsters will retire after the tournament in Stuttgart which starts on October 1. She wants to become a housewife who will support her husband and his career.

(sources: ESPN, BBC Sport)