The climax of the grass court season is upon is as the best in the tennis world head to the All England Club to compete for the Wimbledon title, the third Grand Slam event of the year. We’ll come to the women’s event in a short while but the early focus is on the men.
Novak Djokovic launched an amazing 12 months at this tournament last year, coming through that epic semi-final before beating Kevin Anderson in the final and he is back to defend his crown against a good line up this year.
Recent Winners
2018 – Novak Djokovic
2017 – Roger Federer
2016 – Andy Murray
2015 – Novak Djokovic
2014 – Novak Djokovic
2013 – Andy Murray
2012 – Roger Federer
2011 – Novak Djokovic
2010 – Rafael Nadal
2009 – Roger Federer
The Format
Amazingly we have a slight tweak to the format this year as a tiebreak has been introduced in the final set in order to avoid a repeat of the issues with the lengthy semi-final from last year. That comes at 12-12 in the final set and was never used once in qualifying. It won’t be used here unless John Isner goes deep I would expect.
The tournament has a pre-drawn bracket and is a knockout event right from the start with every match being the best-of-five sets from start to finish. The champion will be crowned on the second Sunday of the tournament when the final takes place on July 14.
Top Quarter
The defending champion, world number one and top seed Novak Djokovic heads the way in this top quarter of the draw. Surprisingly he arrives at Wimbledon having not played a single competitive match on the grass. He played in a couple of exhibitions but that is about it. That could leave him vulnerable to the other seeds in the section. They are Stefanos Tsitsipas, Dusan Lajovic, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Gael Monfils, Daniil Medvedev, David Goffin and Kyle Edmund.
There are some juicy names who are unseeded throughout this draw Djokovic has one of them in the first round in Philipp Kohlschreiber, while Grigor Dimitrov, Hubert Hurkacz, Pablo Carreno Busta and Jeremy Chardy are all current stars or will be in the future. Eastbourne semi-finalist Thomas Fabbiano could be dangerous too.
Second Quarter
This section of the draw is headed up by the man who was beaten in the final here last year in Kevin Anderson, who had survived two epic tussles in the last eight and semi-final before having little left with which to take on Djokovic. Alexander Zverev is seeded to be his quarter final opponent but there are six other seeds looking to stop that from happening. They are Guido Pella, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic, Karen Khachanov, Roberto Bautista Agut and Benoit Paire.
As ever there are some eye catching names in the players who aren’t seeded in this quarter with Queens champion Feliciano Lopez the obvious standout one. Antalya runner up Miomir Kecmanovic is another in this quarter while the big serving Nicolas Jarry and Reilly Opelka are in here too. Andy Murray’s doubles partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert is likely to get plenty of support while he is in the tournament as well.
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Third Quarter
The controversy of the Wimbledon seedings means that Rafael Nadal is the third seed for the tournament and as such he leads out the third quarter this week. He is slated to come up against the dangerous Dominic Thiem in the quarter final although Thiem has a horror first round match. The other six seeds in this part of the draw are Laslo Djere, Queens finalist Gilles Simon, Fabio Fognini, former finalist Marin Cilic, Nikoloz Basilashvili and Denis Shapovalov.
It is a quarter for unseeded Brits is this ne with Dan Evans, James Ward and Paul Jubb all in here but the big unseeded names are Nick Kyrgios, who is scheduled to meet Rafael Nadal in the second round, Eastbourne finalist Sam Querrey and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga faces another capable challenger in the form of Bernard Tomic in the first round while Frances Tiafoe is another who will be looking to do some danage.
Bottom Quarter
Eight time winner Roger Federer is the leading star in the bottom quarter of the draw with Kei Nishikori the man expected to face him in the quarter final, although his lack of grass court prowess could leave the door open to one of the other seeds to step in instead. They are Alex De Minaur, Jan-Lennard Struff, John Isner, Matteo Berrettini, Diego Schwartzman and Lucas Pouille. Without disrespecting anyone Federer could barely have picked an easier section in terms of seeded players.
There are a couple of Brits in this second as well with Jay Clarke and Cameron Norrie looking to do some damage in this quarter. Other notable names include Richard Gasquet, Marcos Baghdatis, Eastbourne winner Taylor Fritz, former finalist here Tomas Berdych and Steve Johnson. They add a bit of a competitiveness to proceedings but only a slight one.
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Outright Betting
I’ll go with a couple of players outright and as I’ve hinted above it is hard to see how Roger Federer could have had an easier initial draw. In fact, were Rafael Nadal to suffer a premature demise it is hard to see how Federer doesn’t make the final with Dominic Thiem and Kei Nishikori both better on other surfaces to grass and the big servers in the half either coming back from injury or are in awful form. Whether Federer would have it to beat Djokovic in the final remains to be seen but Djokovic would have to get there first and that is no guarantee with no grass court competitiveness under his belt. At 10/3 there is enough juice in Federer’s price to merit a bet with this draw.
I’ll also take a punt on Milos Raonic. Admittedly we have to take it in good faith that he stays in one piece for a fortnight but I was always going to take someone in Kevin Anderson’s quarter and with the serve and grass court pedigree the Canadian has he is the choice. In theory this should have come around at the right time for him after a bit of an indifferent year so far. He looked good at Queens initially before running into the eventual champion Feliciano Lopez but with so many in this quarter better suited to other surfaces or returning from injury I’ll take the 40/1 on the Canadian.
Quarter Betting
I’ll play a man in each of the other quarters as well with Felix Auger-Aliassime the man I’m going with in the top quarter. This kid is all class and while a spot in the semi-final could be beyond him at this young stage in his career, if anything happened to Novak Djokovic early doors then I wouldn’t rule out the Canadian going deep. He made the semi-final at Queens where he took care of Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas along the way and has made a big impression all year. He has the game for grass and 10/1 is a shade too big in a very weak quarter without Djokovic.
Gilles Simon should be feeling comfortable on the grass as he has spent plenty of the last two weeks on it. He made the final at Queens and then made the quarter final in Eastbourne when a bit of fatigue caught up with him but he could be the forgotten man in the third quarter. The bottom half of this section looks a minefield for Nadal. He could face Kyrgios in the second round and either Tsonga or Shapovalov in the third round. Simon has no such issues in the other part of it. Dominic Thiem is the leading seed but he could easily be dismissed by Sam Querrey in round one. Fabio Fognini and Laslo Djere are the other seeds in Simon’s half and they are both better on clay and hard courts. That makes the 40/1 on Simon landing this quarter look just a shade too big to me.
Tips
Back R.Federer to win Wimbledon for a 3/10 stake at 4.33 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back M.Raonic to win Wimbledon (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back F.Auger-Aliassime to win 1st Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back G.Simon to win 3rd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Bet365
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