Wimbledon Predictions

There’s been so much going on lately, I haven’t even had time to post about Wimbledon which started today. Grass court tennis is another game entirely so there many players, especially those with big serves, who are not usually on the radar but actually can make a pretty deep run in this tournament.

On the men’s side, Rafa Nadal is not even in the tournament as he is still recovering with what seemed like a pretty severe wrist injury that forced him to retire at the French Open. Roger Federer will be here after skipping the French with his own back injury though I doubt he has regained enough match fitness to survive the entire two weeks on the grass. That leaves only Andy Murray of the big four to really pose a threat to Novak Djokovic. Murray took the warmup tournament at Queens for the fifth time which should give him some confidence coming into Wimbledon. But I just don’t think he has enough to take down Djokovic who has been simply dominant all season long. In fact, with the possible exception of a big serving young gun like Milos Raonic, Dominic Thiem or Alexander Zverev, the only thing standing in Djokovic’s way may be himself. Having won the Australian and completed his career Grand Slam at the French, every match that takes him closer to the Wimbledon final and winning the third leg of the calendar Grand Slam just raises the pressure on him that much more.

Big serving is rewarded on the grass at Wimbledon and there is no bigger server in the women’s game that Serena Williams. Serena made it to the finals of both the Australian and French Opens but faltered at the finish line, losing to Angelique Kerber in Melbourne and Garbine Muguruza in Paris. In addition, Serena has had some surprising losses on the Wimbledon grass, losing to Sabine Lisicki and Alize Cornet in 2013 and 2014 respectively. So the rest of the field probably has the unusual feeling that Serena is actually vulnerable these days. But you can’t point to any one player and say that’s the one who poses a real threat which is why, if Serena does lose, it will still be considered a pretty big upset.