The grass court season concludes for the women over the next fortnight when the best that the tennis world has to offer heads to Wimbledon for the third Grand Slam of the year and a wide open competition at that.
The unseeded Marketa Vondrousova won this title against all the odds last year and she is back to attempt to make a successful defence of the crown. There are so many players in with a chance of winning this though.
Recent Winners
2023 – Marketa Vondrousova
2022 – Elena Rybakina
2021 – Ash Barty
2019 – Simona Halep
2018 – Angelique Kerber
2017 – Garbine Muguruza
2016 – Serena Williams
2015 – Serena Williams
2014 – Petra Kvitova
2013 – Marion Bartoli
The Format
We have the relatively new Grand Slam structure in place in this tournament which means that we have a tiebreak in the final set. Each match is the best of three sets and if it reaches 6-6 in the deciding set then the match will be settled with a first to 10 point tiebreak which we saw for the first time at the French Open in 2022. The 128 players have been inserted into the draw bracket and the tournament is a straight knockout with the champion being decided on the second Saturday.
Top Quarter
The world number one Iga Swiatek has won pretty much every tournament in the game but she has never won Wimbledon and she will attempt to put that right this year from the top quarter of the draw. She is seeded to meet the woman who is looking to be the first successful defending champion since 2016 in Marketa Vondrousova in the quarter final. As ever there are six other seeds out to stop that from happening. They are Katerina Siniakova, Caroline Garcia, Jelena Ostapenko, Danielle Collins, who will be playing her final Wimbledon, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Barbora Krejcikova.
There are going to be big players throughout the draw without a seeded number next to their name and we saw here last year that they can’t be ruled out. Veronika Kudermetova would be one of those while Ajla Tomljanovic had a good run in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago. Yulia Putintseva won that tournament and she is in this quarter as is the former Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber. Sofia Kenin is another former Grand Slam winner in this part of the draw.
Second Quarter
The 2022 winner Elena Rybakina is the highest seed in the second quarter of the draw. She knows she can win here but her fitness can never be guaranteed and she pulled out of Eastbourne last week which would be a concern. She is seeded to face Jessica Pegula in the quarter final but a number of seeds will be out to avoid that clash taking place, including the Nottingham winner in British number one Katie Boulter. Eastbourne finalist Leylah Fernandez, Anna Kalinskaya, Liudmila Samsonova, the beaten finalist of the last two years in Ons Jabeur and Elina Svitolina.
The biggest name among the unseeded players in this quarter of the draw are the former Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki who is in as a wildcard. Another British player in the form of Harriet Dart is also in this section as well while Laura Siegemund and Tatjana Maria are a couple of experienced German players looking to do some damage this week. Marie Bouzkova is a clean hitter who is capable of doing some damage as well.
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Third Quarter
The Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka is the highest seed in the third quarter of the draw. She has one or two injury concerns coming in though so the next highest seed, Qinwen Zheng, might have landed herself in a nice part of the bracket. The other six seeds will also think that and they are Dayana Yastremska, Mirra Andreeva, the Eastbourne champion Daria Kasatkina, Maria Sakkari, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
There are plenty of solid names without seeded numbers next to their name in this quarter of the draw and they are headed up by the former US Open champion and home star Emma Radacanu while Elise Mertens is used to being a seed in these big tournaments. Taylor Townsend is a popular player while Karolina Muchova is a former quarter finalist here. Paula Badosa has been much higher ranked in the past and British player Lily Miyazaki is in this quarter too. Donna Vekic just made the final in Bad Homburg last week so she could be a danger.
Bottom Quarter
Coco Gauff has made her way into the second seed position in the draw. The American youngster goes in search of a first Wimbledon title from the bottom quarter of the bracket with the Eastbourne semi-finalist Jasmine Paolini being the player who could face her in the quarter final should the tournament go to the seeding. The other seeds aiming to stop that happening are Linda Noskova, Marta Kostyuk, Madison Keys, Victoria Azarenka, Emma Navarro and Sorana Cirstea.
This quarter is absolutely loaded with household names who aren’t seeded including the four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka who is the standout of them while Karolina Pliskova is a former finalist at SW19. Diana Shnaider won the tournament in Bad Homburg last week so she’ll be arriving with confidence while Sloane Stephens can still be dangerous. Bianca Andreescu is another unseeded former Grand Slam winner in the draw while Heather Watson leads the home charge.
Outright Betting
Mirra Andreeva made the fourth round here on debut last year and the teenager could be worth backing to build on that over the course of this tournament. She is in the bottom half which is the harder of the two halves although much of that is because of the bottom quarter whereas she is only in the third quarter where the draw could open up a little bit. Andreeva made a huge impression as a 16-year-old a year ago so she probably won’t lack for a bit of support. She has only played one match on the grass this year which saw her go down to Dayana Yastremska in Bad Homburg last week but she went 6-1 on the surface last year and has the power game to do some damage here. She made the French Open semi-finals last month and is 97-30 since the start of 2022. She feels a big price.
Speaking of big prices, Liudmila Samsonova is a big price in the top half of the draw. She won her second grass court title at Hertogenbosch last month and that shows that she can perform on this surface. She has also reached the last 16 of this tournament in the past so while a number of players, including the top seed Iga Swiatek who is in her half of the draw, aren’t suited to the grass, the Russian has no problems with it. She was a bit unlucky not to go better in Bad Homburg last week so there is nothing wrong with her form and at a three figure price in a section which could quickly open up if something happened to Swiatek, I’ll take her to go well here.
Tips
Back M.Andreeva to win Wimbledon (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 36.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back L.Samsonova to win Wimbledon (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
