As the third Grand Slam of the year is about to begin the question everyone is asking is who can stop Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray? The two men have already played out the final of the first two Slams of the year and it would take a brave man to bet against a third meeting.
There are of course 126 players heading to SW19 looking to deny them a third successive Slam final including the likes of Roger Federer, Milos Raonic, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori as well as many others who will feel they have a chance. We’ll preview the entire men’s draw here.
Top Quarter
Novak Djokovic is the headline seed in this quarter and in fairness it is difficult to see who could give him any problems until the quarter final when a fired up Milos Raonic could give him a few problems. The other seeds in the top section are David Goffin, David Ferrer, Kevin Anderson, Jack Sock, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Sam Querrey. While there are some solid players there only Raonic can give the world number one problems.
There is plenty of British interest in this quarter as well with Djokovic’s first round opponent being James Ward and the winner of that could face Kyle Edmund in the second round. Bryden Klein and Alexander Ward are also in this section. They face tough openers against Nicolas Mahut and David Goffin respectively.
Second Quarter
This is one of the most open quarters in the entire draw and it is headlined by the great Roger Federer who for the first time in a number of years goes into the tournament having not won an event this calendar year. He has been battling with injuries and the warm up event which he near enough owns in Halle didn’t yield a title this year which is why he is 16/1 to win this tournament.
This quarter is loaded with big names. Kei Nishikori is in here as is the former US Open champion Marin Cilic. The other seeds are Alexandr Dolgopolov, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Ivo Karlovic and Pablo Cuevas so this is a really competitive looking section.
Once again there is some Brits to focus on in this section and they come in the form of Marcus Willis and Dan Evans. There are also some dangerous floaters in this quarter too in particular the Nottingham champion Steve Johnson, Grigor Dimitrov who is in a real dip in form but is a former semi-finalist here, and Gilles Muller.
Third Quarter
Stan Wawrinka is the top seed in the third quarter of the draw and the Swiss star will be looking to improve a pretty poor record which has seen him never go beyond the quarter final of this tournament. Richard Krajicek has been recruited to help with that quest but he has his work cut out in a draw full of young talent.
Dominic Thiem is the other main seed in this quarter and he arrives here having won one of the warm up tournaments. The pair are joined by the likes of Joao Sousa, Alexander Zverev, Tomas Berdych, Roberto Bautista Agut, Bernard Tomic and Lucas Pouille of the seeded players. Juan Martin del Potro and Fernando Verdasco go down in the tricky floaters column but there is no British interest in this quarter.
Bottom Quarter
All eyes will be on Andy Murray in this section. Having gone 10 years without playing a British opponent he faces a third one in little over a week in the first round. He takes on Liam Broady in the first round in what should be a comfortable start.
Richard Gasquet is the other top seed in the quarter which will suit Murray and the other seeds are made up of Viktor Troicki, John Isner, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nick Kyrgios, Feliciano Lopez and Benoit Paire. In truth there is nothing there that is likely to worry Murray although a quarter final with Tsonga would be entertaining.
Aljaz Bedene completes the British personnel in the tournament and he is housed in this part of the draw while Marcos Baghdatis is probably the best of the players who could be dubbed as potential spoilers.
Betting
I don’t normally take short prices in outright markets but I don’t really see beyond the top two in this tournament and in fact come the end of the event we might well look back and think that the 13/8 on it being a Murray vs Djokovic final was a steal.
I fancy big things from Andy Murray for the rest of the year now that he has got Ivan Lendl back in his corner. He won Wimbledon under Lendl and the Czech was also part of his team when he won the Olympics here too so he is a big influence on the Scot.
Murray has a quarter that he would’ve near enough handpicked himself if given the opportunity and I fully expect him to make it through to the semi-final where there isn’t anyone there that I would fancy beating him. At 7/2 with the draw the way it is I think Murray has every chance of going all the way in this tournament.
In the top half of the draw it is clearly all about Novak Djokovic but Marin Cilic arrives here in good form having made it all the way to the final at Queens. He has been a semi-final in this tournament in the past and he is in a quarter where he can make it again with fitness doubts over Roger Federer and this not being Kei Nishikori’s best surface and there are fitness doubts over him too.
Cilic has a coach in Goran Ivanisevic who knows how to go the distance and if he can come through the open quarter and have a weekend of inspired serving like he did in New York he could go close again. I’ll have a nibble of him outright and a much stronger bet on him to win his quarter.
The third quarter looks wide open too with Stan Wawrinka the top seed and him never coming out of a quarter in this tournament yet. There are a few contenders in this quarter not least Alexander Zverev who beat Roger Federer in Halle, Bernard Tomic who was a semi-finalist at Queens and Tomas Berdych who has gone deep here before but I like the rising star.
Dominic Thiem landed a touch for me at the French Open in this very market and his quarter here is no harder. Thiem also beat Federer on the grass earlier in the season so we know he can take down the best on this surface. The Austrian is going to breakthrough in a really big way soon and it might even be here. I fancy him to make the semi-final before his run ends at SW19 this week.
Tips
WON – Back A.Murray to win Wimbledon for a 3/10 stake at 4.50 with Skybet
Back him here:
Back D.Thiem to win 3rd Quarter for a 3/10 stake at 5.00 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
Back M.Cilic to win Wimbledon (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back M.Cilic to win 2nd Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 8.50 with NetBet
Back it here:
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