While the men’s draw at Wimbledon looks all about one man, that is certainly not the case with the women’s draw and a very open looking third Grand Slam of the year gets underway on Monday with a number of challengers potentially able to land the title.
Elena Rybakina did just that last year and she is back at SW19 to attempt to keep hold of the prestigious title. With the Russians and Belarusians back this year she will come up against a very strong field in opposition.
Recent Winners
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
2012 – Serena Williams
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 five 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 last year. 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 Sunday.
Top Quarter
Iga Swiatek is a resounding world number one and she goes into this tournament looking for successive Grand Slam titles but she is yet to even make the last eight in London and her grass record overall isn’t spectacular so she might be vulnerable this fortnight. She is seeded to meet Coco Gauff in the quarter final. Gauff probably doesn’t mind that draw and neither will the other six seeds who are Elise Mertens, Victoria Azarenka, Eastbourne finalist Daria Kasatkina, Belinda Bencic, Magda Linette and Petra Martic.
The one thing we’ll see throughout this draw is the amount of names we are familiar with who aren’t seeded this fortnight. In the top quarter we have the likes of Lyn Zhu, Linda Fruhvirtova, Jil Teichmann, Danielle Collins and the former Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin. The two big unseeded players in this quarter though might well be Venus Williams and Elina Svitolina and they meet in a blockbuster first round match.
Second Quarter
Jessica Pegula has a pretty average singles record on grass but she is the fourth seed this fortnight and the leading seed in the second quarter. The fact that the American hasn’t really done it on grass will keep Caroline Garcia interested, although the French player has been struggling with injury recently. That might open the quarter up for the other six seeds and they are Marie Bouzkova, Donna Vekic, Veronika Kudermetova, Liudmila Samsonova, Qinwen Zheng and Mayar Sherif.
This is a quarter which isn’t blessed with the deepest number of quality or recognisable unseeded players but one obvious standout is the former French Open champion Sloane Stephens. The woman Emma Raducanu beat to win the US Open is in this quarter too in Leylah Fernandez while Anett Kontaveit has had a decent career which will end when her participation in this tournament concludes as she is being forced to retire with injury.
Third Quarter
The defending champion Elena Rybakina will look to make a successful defence of her title from the third quarter and the Australian Open finalist will be the top seed in this part of the draw. She could be on a collision course for a repeat of the 2022 final in the quarter final this year as Ons Jabeur is the next highest seed in this quarter. The other seeds in this section are Bernarda Pera, the Birmingham champion Jelena Ostapenko, Beatriz Haddad Maia, former champion Petra Kvitova who has already won in Berlin on the grass this season, Karolina Pliskova and Anna Kalinina.
There are not masses of recognisable unseeded names in this quarter either but one who is here is the former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu. Yulia Putintseva is capable of beating the better players on her day while Tatjana Maria was a semi-finalist here a year ago. The Nottingham champion Katie Boulter will be looking to do well in her home Grand Slam while Alize Cornet and Shelby Rogers are others who could be dangerous.
Bottom Quarter
The Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka is the number two seed this fortnight and she is the top seed in the bottom quarter here. She is on course for a date with Maria Sakkari in the quarter final although the Greek would need an improvement on her past Wimbledon exploits for that to happen. Out to stop it from happening will be the Eastbourne champion Madison Keys, Anastasia Potapova, Barbora Krejcikova, Karolina Muchova, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Irina Begu.
There are some nasty draws among the unseeded players in this part of the draw with Camila Giorgi someone who often turns up and plays well on the grass. Yanina Wickmayer had to qualify for this tournament but she has a lot of experience on the surface too while Emma Navarro has just had a good run in the lead up to this event. British wildcard Heather Watson, Marta Kostyuk, Alison Riske-Amritraj and Paula Badosa are some of the others to keep an eye on.
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Outright Betting
Donna Vekic looks to have a nice draw this fortnight. Jessica Pegula doesn’t have a fantastic grass court record and pulled out of a doubles match with Coco Gauff with a back injury on Saturday so might even be a doubt to take her place in the field here. The other main seed in their quarter is Caroline Garcia who also pulled out of Eastbourne citing an injury last week. Pegula has never made the second week here while Garcia has never gone past the fourth round. You could say the same about Vekic but she has made four WTA finals on grass so her record here is a bit more of a mystery. One of those finals was in Berlin recently but having won in Mexico earlier in the year we know she is capable of big things. She’s my main bet this fortnight.
I’ll also take a punt on Ekaterina Alexandrova who can be backed at 100/1 for this title. Alexandrova won in Hertogenbosch on the grass and then beat Liudmila Samsonova and Coco Gauff in Berlin before she ran into eventual champion Petra Kvitova in the semi-final so she has come alive on the grass. Alexandrova is 7-1 on grass this season to add to 6-1 she went last season when of course she couldn’t play at Wimbledon being Russian. Anyone who has won 13 out of her last 15 matches on this surface has to be taken seriously and while she is in a tricky part of the draw, there is no guarantee that Aryna Sabalenka would get past Camila Giorgi in round two so it could easily open right up. I’ll throw some coins at the 100/1 to see if it pays dividends.
Quarter Betting
I’ll have a go at both of the quarters which I haven’t got outright bets in as well this week and in the top quarter Daria Kasatkina is the obvious alternative to an Iga Swiatek who looks far too short for my liking, especially with her pulling out of a semi-final over the weekend with food poisoning. This is the half of the draw which plays on the opening day so if she hasn’t fully recovered she could be found out, especially with her first round opponent being ranked 34 in the world so technically the second toughest draw she could have got. Kasatkina made the final at Eastbourne last week where Karolina Pliskova, Caroline Garcia and Camila Giorgi were among her victims. I like the 10/1 she can reach the semi-final here after she made the quarter final in 2018 before losing to eventual champion Angelique Kerber.
In the third quarter I’ll take a small chance on Karolina Pliskova to roll back the years. Her serve is always a weapon on grass and while she is probably not the force she once was, she did make the last eight in the Australian Open at the start of the year. Clearly the standouts in this section are Elena Rybakina and Petra Kvitova, two other really big servers but I don’t think Pliskova will mind going toe-to-toe with them given the chance. She is much more likely to be competitive against them than someone who gets everything back and exposes her movement. Pliskova probably isn’t a leading fancy anymore but given it was only two Slams ago she was a win from winning a quarter and the fact she is 25/1 to win this I’ll pay to see how close she goes.
Tips
Back D.Vekic to win Wimbledon (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 36.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
Back E.Alexandrova to win Wimbledon (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back D.Kasatkina to win 1st Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Coral
Back K.Pliskova to win 3rd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Boylesports
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