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This time she will not even feature in Saturday's showpiece, having played in the past three Grand Slam finals.

Sabalenka has reached the final of the past three majors and, with most of her rivals falling in the first week of SW19, she has an incredible chance of reaching Saturday's showpiece.

"There have been long-held fears that this latest supposedly showpiece tournament, shoehorned into an already over-crowded calendar after a gruelling season, would struggle to capture the public imagination," he said.

Bath narrowly lost to Northampton in the Twickenham showpiece last June but were overwhelming favourites this time around.

This week's World Test Championship final between Australia and South Africa at Lord's is the longer format's showpiece.