Williams sisters Wimbledon ready

For so long Venus and Serena Williams boasted it all at Wimbledon: power, athleticism, confidence and charisma. And each time they strode onto the grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, they exuded an air of invincibility.

The events of the past 12 months have added an unexpected quality to the sisters’ portfolio: vulnerability.

After extended layoffs for injury (knee surgery in Serena’s case; strained abdominal muscles on Venus’s part), they returned to the game earlier this year but have hardly dominated, particularly at the recent French Open, where both sisters struggled with form en route to quarterfinal collapses.

While tennis insiders insist that Venus and Serena remain the best in the women’s game, their relatively early ousters at Roland Garros prove that they can’t simply roll out of bed or jet in from Cannes and expect to collect their customary hardware. And that realization has supplied Wimbledon, which gets under way today (5 a.m., ESPN2; 9 a.m., ESPN), with its most compelling story line: Are the Williams sisters ready — physically, mentally and emotionally — to reclaim their place atop the women’s game and reclaim the tournament that has been theirs four years running?

Getting the Williamses back in top form would be a boon not only for the women’s game, but also for the sport in general.