Jun 24, 2013
The 2013 Wimbledon tennis championships kick off today. The two-week tournament is the third Grand Slam championship. There are plenty of story lines to follow and the All-England competition is the Grand Slam that many players covet the most. Here’s a breakdown of the favorites in the men’s and women’s side of the draws.
Men’s – The ‘Big Four’ are back
This is the first Grand Slam of the 2013 season where the top four players in men’s tennis will all be competing. Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will all line up in the initial draw, and that should make this tournament the best Grand Slam of the season so far.
A quirk of the rankings means that Nadal has fallen to fifth and has been seeded in the same side of the draw as Federer and Murray. A potential quarter-final match-up between Nadal and Federer will be the early tournament story line.
The winner of that game takes on a fresh and pumped up Murray seeking to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry won it in 1936. He has the all-round game and will surely back himself against Nadal and Federer in his side of the draw.
Still, it’s very hard to look past Djokovic as the big favorite in this competition. He has a draw that should allow a well-paced championship bid. He pushed Nadal so hard on the clay court surface at the French Open and just couldn’t quite get past the Spaniard in a five-set classic. All that will mean is that Djokovic is hungry. The world number one is the best player on the circuit and he should win it all here.
Women’s – Can Serena Williams Keep Rolling?
Serena Williams has been in seemingly unstoppable form. She looked to be in a different class compared with the competition as she steam-rolled to the second French Open title of her career, her first success at Roland Garros since 2002.
There are plenty of reasons for Williams to stay focused as she chases the most successful women in the history of tennis, at least in terms of Grand Slam success. However, the 31-year old’s career has frequently featured peaks and troughs. It just seems inconceivable that she can keep this run up permanently. In theory, her hard-hitting game should set her apart even more clearly on the grass of Wimbledon. It will be interesting to see how that turns out in practice.
The clear contenders matching up against Williams’ dominance are Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka. Both players have the power and all-round games that should make them successful players on grass.
It won’t be easy to prevent Williams from winning her sixth Wimbledon title, and fourth in five years. Maybe Serena is on course for another successful era similar to the ‘Serena Slam’ phase of 2002-2003. It won’t be easy.
