The world’s most prestigious tennis tournament, Wimbledon, will play out at the All-England Club for two weeks this summer starting July 2. There is already fevered anticipation about who will be able to make history on the hallowed Centre Court during the final weekend.
Roger Federer will again be a strong favorite on the men’s side of the draw after he secured a record eighth Wimbledon title last year. The Swiss added a sixth Australian Open title to his incredible resume in January, and despite being 36 years old he is showing no signs of slowing down in Grand Slams. Federer has made the decision to once again skip the French Open—and the entire clay-court swing—to focus his efforts on the grass season, so he should be in excellent shape when Wimbledon rolls around.
Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic have both won the tournament multiple times, but both are struggling with fitness issues so they are unlikely to be among the favorites. Their experience, though, will always be a positive factor if they are fit enough to play. This leaves the final player of the “Big Four,” Rafael Nadal, who recently regained the No. 1 world ranking. The Spaniard has two Wimbledon titles but hasn’t advanced past the fourth round since 2011.
In terms of dark horses, the big-serving Sam Querrey will carry America’s hopes along with Jack Sock and perhaps Miami Open champion John Isner. Querrey lost to Marin Cilic in the semifinals last year and has traditionally performed well on grass, so expect him to shine again. Kevin Anderson, Tomas Berdych, and Juan Martin Del Potro have also been to the latter stages of Wimbledon before, so they could make a deep run again.
Del Potro is arguably the hottest player on tour right now after defeating Federer in a thriller in the Indian Wells final and reaching the semifinals in Miami. The Argentine is currently No. 6 in the world, and it would be no surprise if he carried his impressive form into the grass-court season. Meanwhile, the third-ranked Cilic—who lost to Federer in last summer’s Wimbledon final—could also do well again.
In terms of young players ready to make a big impact, Germany’s Alexander Zverev is the pick of the bunch. The 20-year-old advanced to the fourth round of Wimbledon last year and has continued to show excellent form on the ATP Tour in the early months of 2018. Both he and Grigor Dimitrov, plus Federer, Cilic, Querrey, and Del Potro will arguably offer the best value for those who place a wager with Stakers.com for the competitions leading up to the event and Wimbledon.
On the women’s side, the tournament is tipped to be wide open as Serena Williams continues her comeback from maternity leave. The 36-year-old could equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slams at Wimbledon, but Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki, and Garbine Muguruza will be among the big names who will be aiming to upset the odds and lift the famous Venus Rosewater Dish.
The grass-court season will begin in earnest with the traditional events at Queen’s Club, Halle, and Eastbourne before Wimbledon takes center stage for a fortnight in early July.
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who ya got?
GOAT….once again!!!
What? Fed decided to ignore the clay court season so you do the same? It’s a tad early for Wimbledon talk.
Yeah!…I felt a bit strange when i saw Ricky already came up with a Wimby thread yesterday when we’re just entered clay season…RG still a month or so away!…Ricky is a Fedfan?
Look at his avatar and you’ll get the answer.
Ohohohohoho!!Yeah augusta!….Silly me!..I missed that!!..Hehehe..
Agree it does seem odd to be discussing Wimbledon before the clay season has even got into full swing. Ricky must have his reasons for leap-frogging ahead like that but I doubt very much it is favouritism – he is usually scrupulously impartial in that respect.
Please enlighten us Ricky.
Possibly Ricky hopes to pre-empt an outbreak of Rafan hysteria on this site if he breaks all his own clay records ;-
i didnt write this
OK, you are halfway off the hook but you let it be published prematurely n’est ce pas?
Ricky said he didn’t write this.
So who did?
Is this hacked again?
i published it. i didn’t write it. as you can always tell, any article with ads in it is not written by me.
Shouldn’t you reference the author of any published article?
By the way, your site is seriously hacked. Sooooo many pop-ups and redirects.
Shot clock at US Open this year with loss of game on third time violation LOL. Fits right in with cushy draws and night matches. The push is on to get Grampa past Serena’s slam total! I miss peak Nole. While the cat’s away… as they say.
NYTimes article written by federazzi staff…
U.S. Open Will Use a Serve Clock in the Main Draw
“A warning to Rafael Nadal and other notorious tennis procrastinators: The dawdling days of time-wasting between points and games are coming to an end, at least at Flushing Meadows.
The United States Open will use a 25-second serve clock at this year’s event, which will be the first time such a system will be deployed in the main draw at a major tennis tournament.
Players will now have 25 seconds from the end of a point to serve for the next one. If they don’t, they will face consequences, which have yet to be finalized. The first violation could incur a warning, followed by the loss of a point and then the loss of a game.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/sports/us-open-serve-clock.html
1) not allowed to, 2) everything got fixed today
Ricky probably feels that there’s nothing much to discuss about clay when Rafa may be the one dominating the whole clay season so might as well talk about Wimbledon.
Fed is clearly Ricky’s fave player – RFD is obviously Roger FeDerer.
…or Ricky F. Dimon??
Sorry Ricky Federer Dimon!…I WILL NOT DISCUSS WIMBLEDON YET!…U HEAR??…RAFA FIRST!!
I hope that Rafa will dominate the clay season. He’s coming in with very little match play, but at least he got to play at DC.
It’s clay so that should help Rafa. He’s so good on this surface that he doesn’t need to be at his best to win. I am looking forward to seeing him in action again.
I am not even thinking about Wimbledon now. Too much great clay court tennis to look forward to now. Fed can take it easy while it’s Rafa time!
There will be lots of surprises in this clay season 🤣.
Rafa wins the French. Fed wins Wimbledon. US Open is anyone.
Agree with others that this is a tad early. I guess Fed has to be the Wimby favourite, but it just seems odd to say it of a nearly 37 year old who is in the middle of taking two months off.
Healthy Rafa is more of a favourite at RG than healthy Fed at Wimby, but I have doubts that either of them will be able to be fully healthy at those tournaments.
Depends on how you define a ‘fully healthy’ Rafa. He himself admitted, after his DC performance, he experienced some pain but his movement had not been compromised. That is his criteria for being healthy!
We have to wait and pray the hip holds up through the lead up tournaments prior to Roland Garros.
#fingers crossed
Predicted Roger to win Wimby 2017, few days after he announced he was ending his 2016 season. Now I’m going bold and saying Rafa will win Wimbledon 2018
Olly
Now that’s what I call a really bold prediction. The last time he achieved the ‘Channel Double’ was in 2010