2004 Wimbledon Championships – Women's Singles became the third-youngest woman to win Wimbledon (behind Lottie Dod and Martina Hingis) and the second Russian woman (after Anastasia Myskina won the French Open earlier that year) to win a Grand Slam title. Venus Williams, who had appeared in the previous four Wimbledon finals, winning in 2000 and 2001, suffered her earliest exit from Wimbledon since her debut, being upset in the second round by Karolina Šprem. This was also the last Grand Slam singles tournament that former world No. 1 Martina Navratilova competed in; having been awarded a wild card, she won her first round match and became,
The Championships, Wimbledon finalist three times, and been ranked no. 2 in the world; his low ranking was due to having been hampered by a persistent shoulder injury for three years, which had only just cleared up. In 1996, the title was won by Richard Krajicek, who was originally unseeded (ranked 17th, and only 16 players were seeded) but was promoted to a seeded position (still with the number 17) when Thomas Muster withdrew before the tournament. No unseeded player has captured the Ladies' Singles title; the lowest seeded female champion was Venus Williams, who won in 2007 as the 23rd seed; Williams