Last year’s Wimbledon champs, Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitova are returning to hopefully defend and renew their respective titles at the All-England club. The summer contest will not only be a hot one on the court, but also off as it’s predicted that the next two weeks locally will kick off summer with a heatwave that could approach with temperatures of 30C in the south-east of the country. Fans will surely be looking forr a way to stay cool as they dawn white and put on their hats flocking to the All-England club as Wimbledon gets underway, starting tomorrow, Monday 29 June.
This tournament is the jewel of Britain’s sporting summer, and without fail Wimbledon always attracts significant media attention and this year will be no different. It’s the highlight of the short grass court season and and the stars who dominate it love the feel of Wimbledon.
In the men’s draw, the top-three ranked stars in Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray will be in the fore front and be expected by most to lead the hunt. 10th seed and two-time champion Rafael Nadal is looking to recover from his miserable recent play especially being knocked out by Djokovic in the quarter finals at Roland Garros, to prove himself still a threat for challenging for grand slams again.
2014’s winner Djokovic, who won the Australian Open in January, was upset quite badly by Stanislas Wawrinka in the final at Roland Garros earlier this month, so no doubt he will have extra fire in his play and will bring that passion into this tournament. He won is 2014 and 2011, but lost to Murray in 2013 and so is looking to redeem himself on the green.
A lot will be expected too of Briton Murray, as he’ll be the home favourite once again, and he has been okaying really well lately, having had some of his best ever series of performances on clay, and got a record-tying fourth Aegon Championship title at Queen’s.
David Ferrer has withdrawn from the tournament today, due to an elbow injury so will not compete on the men’s side.
For the women, Serena Williams who recently dominated at the French Open will try harder and is a safe bet for further success. Two time recent winner, Petra Kvitova will give her a challenge and shall be expected to make a valiant defence of her title despite recently suffering from an illness.
Third seed Simona Halep will also be a threat. The big story would be that Maria Sharapova, who’ll faces Britain’s Johanna Konta in the first round, will look to end her sad record against Serena in order to capture the title at Wimbledon for the first time in 11 years. Heather Watson has also had some elbow problems as Ferrer, and might also back out last minute.
Laura Robson, can be considered a wildcard entry after being out for 17 with a wrist injury. She will be sure to play her hardest to get back into her best game.
Our prediction consists of taking into account that Djokovic is still hurting from his shocking and shameful defeat at Roland Garros, so he’ll be hot to trot and we can expect Novak to desperately want to avenge that result with an obvious display of dominance which would capture him a third Wimbledon men’s title and heal the wounds a bit from the debacle in Paris.
Serena Williams looks like she will stay on course for a calendar Grand Slam, and become the holder of all four major titles if she can win at SW19. The number two seed and defending champion Petra Kvitova is not going to roll over and let Serena take the crown the jewel so easily so she can never be ruled out. But in this case it seems unwise to bet against the rested American to win it all once again.
Selected first-round matches to watch out for that will be interesting:
Novak Djokovic v Philipp Kohlschreiber
Andy Murray v Mikhail Kukushkin
Roger Federer v Damir Dzumhur
Rafael Nadal v Thomaz Bellucci
Stan Wawrinka v Joao Sousa
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Gilles Muller
Daniel Gimeno v Milos Raonic
Tomas Berdych v Jeremy Chardy
Our Picks: Djokovic and Serena Williams as favourites, at 11/8 & 7/4 odds.
Upset pick: Murray, at 5/2.
