Wimbledon Preview: The Calm before the Quiet Storm
With the French Open in the books, we turn our heads towards the grasscourt season. In my mind, this was the only slam that I thought Federer would win this year. Now that he won the Australian and now has the chance to win on his favorite surface is a dream come true. But besides Federer, there has not been that much movement within the Top 5 in the world rankings. The mens draw is more focused on the Top 20 players while the women's draw is more wide open than ever.
Mens Draw
Favorite - Roger Federer
Yes, I am a little biased on this one. But lets look at the facts, Andy Murray has been having an inconsistent year. Novak has been struggling with his entire team and his "shock therapy" has yet to prove to anyone that he has the potential to do better this year. Federer has the best win to loss ratio this year without taking his break into account. He is going for his 8th Wimbledon title and we all know that this is his favorite surface to win a major on.
Dark Horse - Alexandr Zverev
At 20 years old, he has cracked the Top 10 rankings for the first time in his career and won his first Masters 1000 event at Rome. He already has 4 titles this year and he is looking better on the grass court. With his level of talent at such a young age, he can be the one to make a deep run at this years Wimbledon. If everything plays out well for him, I can see him making to the semi-finals of this years tournament.
Women's Draw
The woman's tour has not been solid. A lot of inconsistent play with the world rankings and many newcomers are instant success because of the non-dominant talent that we have once seen in the WTA. A 20 year old has won the French Open, we do not have a solid number 1 player on tour. Nothing seems to be consistent on the tour.
Favorite - Simona Halep
Simona has a pretty good year so far. Two clay court finals and one Grand Slam final. Although that the French Open seemed like a steal for her first Grand Slam title, Ostapenko had another thing coming. Kvitova has also hit her stride by just winning her 20th overall title, but Halep has been playing all year and has been gaining experience each tournament. This would be a great Grand Slam for her to win with her style of game play. Big groundstrokes and relentless ball tracking will give her an edge over the competition on grass.
Dark Horse - Elina Svitolina
What can we say about Elina Svitolina, she has climbed into the Top 10 rankings for the first time and has already won 4 titles in this calendar year. Besides her loss to Camila Giorgi in Birmingham, she has the experience and the talent to turn heads. At the age of 22, only one year older than me, she has variety of groundstroke tools that throw off her opponents and create points that we have never seen before.
