As the first ball is struck on the grass of SW19, 128 players will be vying to get their hands on the Challenge Cup. Some will be playing at The All England Club for the very first time; while some players will be contesting there last Wimbledon adventure. Lleyton Hewitt champion here in 2002 will make his 17th consecutive appearance at The Championships as a professional tour player and although by no means a contender, when Hewitt is around there is sure to be a story. Another player who has been creating stories lately is Novak Djokovic. But can the man from Serbia defend the title he so emphatically won last year to lift a third crown, or will be halted again like he was in Paris?
The Serbian has a tough draw. His opening match is against Philipp Kohlschreiber whose best result has come at Wimbledon in 2012 when he reached the quarter-finals. The German is a threat on grass and Djokovic will need to be fully prepared when he opens proceedings on Centre Court on Day 1 of The Championships. There is sure to be after-effects from his loss to Stan Wawrinka at the Roland Garros final and with no competitive matches on grass heading into Wimbledon, this is as good of a challenge you can possibly get in your opening round match against a 33rd seed. Even the great Serb himself reiterated this as "one of the toughest first round matches I could have got". And the challenges won't stop there as Hewitt could await in round two, Bernard Tomic in the third round and possible encounters with Queen's runner-up Kevin Anderson and Kei Nishikori in the fourth round and quarter-final stage respectively. If he negotiates his way past these stalwarts, then a chance for revenge could be served up with a semi-final match-up with French Open champion Stan Wawrinka.
That's only if "Stan the Man" can book a semi-final berth against Novak, a stage that the Swiss has never reached. In fact, his Wimbledon performance timeline makes for pretty dismal reading for somebody of Stan's calibre. This will be his 11th appearance at The All England Club stretching back to 2005 but his best result came last year when he lost to Roger Federer in the quarter-finals. Previous to that he has lost five times in the first round (2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013), once in the second and third round in 2011 and 2006 respectively and twice in the fourth round (2008, 2009). I highlight this to show the inconsistencies that has plagued Wawrinka's career because his record in other slams is pretty identical, but that's the interesting part, because despite his irregularities, the Swiss has two grand slam titles to his name and so can absolutely not be ruled out of adding a third here in London. His draw looks comfortable as well with no real threats looming until at least the quarter-finals where Milos Raonic will most likely await. Realistically, looking at the draw Stan has received, a ticket for the semi-final berth is almost a cert and the Swiss is definitely a strong contender for this year's title. Of course his efficient back-hand that was so effective at Roland Garros is a lot harder to master on grass because of the quickness of the surface, but his game is strong enough to worry any of the major contenders for the title.
British prospects are looking strong again for this year's Wimbledon Championships. Unfortunately it looks like only Andy Murray has a realistic chance of glory, but the other starlets of British tennis will want to make their mark on the tournament even if that means a first round exit. In fact, a first round loss will still net a player £29,000 and for the likes of debutant Liam Broady and Brydan Klein, this pay packet can sustain a player's career for at least another year in terms of traveling expenses and coaching fees and hopefully enable them to become a better player in the process. But a first round exit for Andy Murray just isn't fathomable and the Scot is expected by many to make another deep run in London. His disappointing defence of the title last year ended in the quarter-finals against Grigor Dimitrov but Murray feels much more confident this year especially on the back of his most successful clay-court season of his career. Having avoided being in the same half of the draw as Djokovic, Murray knows that he can't face his nemesis until at least the final but other worrying names lurk in his side of the draw. Borna Coric or Andreas Seppi could await in round three, while French Open semi-finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is a potential fourth rounder for Murray. It then gets confusing because going by seedings Andy could then meet Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals, swiftly followed by Federer in the semis. But these kinds of assumptions have been made before, a la Wimbledon 2013, but both were knocked out early. So will this "dream" match-up for tennis enthusiasts materialise, or will Murray be facing a few outsiders coming into the latter stages of this year's grass-court grand slam?
Rafa Nadal's season has been under-par for his usual standards and not since last year's French Open has the Spaniard been a genuine title contender. He heads into the third Grand Slam of the year with a grass-court title under his belt from his victory in Stuttgart, his first grass title for five years. But his last competitive match on the greens was a first round loss at Queen's Club to Alexandr Dolgopolov which is sure to dent the confidence of the 14-time Grand Slam winner. More crushing for the Spaniard is his seeding of 10th and Nadal is susceptible to lose early to anybody these days. He opens his campaign against Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, but it's a possible second round encounter with German Dustin Brown which could garner an upset alert. The 6foot5 30 year-old has beaten Nadal in there only meeting last year on the grass-courts of Halle and Dustin has the game that troubles Nadal, albeit on a Grand Slam level Nadal will still be strong favourite. If Nadal was too lose early and with David Ferrer pulling out with an elbow injury, this half of the draw is extremely wide open, so somebody who could take advantage of this is up and coming Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, so watch out.
Federer heads into Wimbledon with a grass-court title at Halle and with his commanding run through to the final last year, the 34 year-old will still feel he has a good shot at going deep this year, especially considering that his draw has been very kind for the Swiss. A good match-up for the neutrals however could be in the third round for Roger, with American 31st seed Jack Sock looking to go head-to-head with the 7-time Wimbledon champion. Sock had a good run in Paris reaching the fourth round where he pushed Nadal to four sets and the American is sure to give Federer some problems if they do meet. A quarter-final match-up with Tomas Berdych could cause a potential upset for the maestro, but a semi-final date with Andy Murray looks very likely in early predictions for the tournament.
Nobody is better prepared for this year's championships than Andy Murray. His title at Queen's, the extra week for preparation before Wimbledon and his new coaching partnership with former player Jonas Bjorkman just looks like a winning formula and with a comfortable looking draw that avoids Novak to at least the final, Murray is a cert to at least reach the final. Djokovic will have a say however and his potential semi-final with Wawrinka could be mouth-watering for neutrals, but the grass-courts of SW19 should be more suited for the Serbian. So a Novak and Andy final is almost definitely on the cards with Murray coming out on top for his second Wimbledon title.
Men's Champion: Andy Murray
Dark Horse: Milos Raonic
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