Wimbledon 2011 Fourth Round Preview - Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams considered favorites

Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams are considered the top two favorites to win Wimbledon outright in women's singles. They will both be a part of Monday's action.

The first three rounds in the women's draw at the All England Club are complete as the original field of 128 has been narrowed down to just 16 players.

Those sixteen players do not include all of the high seeds as both Na Li and Vera Zvonareva, the third and second seeds respectively, suffered early round losses with Sabine Lisicki eliminating Li and Tsvetana Pironkova eliminating Zvonareva. Lisicki will face another unseeded player on Monday as she faces Petra Cetkovska while Pironkova, the 32nd seed, will face Venus Williams, the 23rd seed.

The top four favorites remaining in the tournament, in order, are Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, and Caroline Wozniacki.

Nadia Petrova, hardly a favorite to win the title, is a player who has made some unexpected noise at Wimbledon 2011. She has fallen in the rankings in recent months but her fourth round appearance is resurgent especially since she went through Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Caroline Wozniacki looks reasonably safe to advance although there are no locks any longer. She'll face Dominika Cibulkova in the fourth round a player who has just 2 career wins in the 4 round of a Grand Slam draw, with neither of those wins from Wimbledon.

Wozniacki and Sharapova, should they both win their next matches, would showdown in the quarterfinals in a battle that would be between 2 prosective finalists.

Kvitova could blast her way through to the final while Serena Williams might be in trouble against Marion Bartoli in the 4 round as the French player is on form at the moment.