An odd draw pits Federer, Djokovic and Murray in the same half with Djokovic looking good at the top. Murray looks to have an easy-ish route through to the semi-finals with possibly Tsonga or Cilic in the way to get there. A Federer-Nadal quarter final would genuinely be interesting after endless clay mis-matches, while the 2nd quarter of the draw looks wide open with lots of big servers in the fray.
British interest is of course spearheaded by the Scot Murray with Kyle Edmund (vs. Janowicz) and James Ward (vs. Lu) flying the flag as wild cards, but probably only for one round. Murray has a real chance to break the Fred Perry spell with his Olympic success and experience in a Wimbledon final. A Djokovic-Murray looks on the cards.
Let’s break it down:
Level: Grand Slam
Surface: Grass
Defending Champion: Roger Federer - The Swiss Army Knife is bidding to win Wimbledon title for a record eighth time, but will have to beat Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic if he is to do so.
Nasty Floater: Feliciano Lopez – Made finals of Eastbourne and has big grass weapons in serve, volley and slice. Judy Murray will be in support too no doubt.
Wild Cards: Steve Johnson, Matthew Ebden, Kyle Edmund, Nicolas Mahut, James Ward
Veteran Watch: Lleyton ‘Rusty’ Hewitt – A good showing at Queens last week, the former SW19 champ gets Wawrinka first round and is still highly dangerous.
Young Blood: Grigor Dimitrov – It will be interesting to see how his Federer-esque game works on the grass with little experience so far on it.
Slumping: John Isner – Long John has been disappointing of late but if he can hold serve all week, he will stay at the business end of the tournament.
On Fire: Rafael Nadal – On a 22-match winning streak and looking for his third Wimbledon title.
My pick: Andy Murray - After becoming the first British male in 74 years to reach the Wimbledon final last year, The Murricane goes one step further and win his second Grand Slam title and banishes the ghost of Fred Perry.
Did You Know? Federer has 13 grass court titles (13-4 in finals) and a career record of 121-17 (.877) on grass, the best winning percentage in the Open Era.
Watch: Wimbledon Uncovered
Thanks for reading and check back next week for more tips!